CLIFTONVILLE boss Paddy McLaughlin has hinted that he will rotate his squad in the midst of their busy schedule as they take on Linfield in the quarter-final of the Toal’s County Antrim Shield this evening. 

The Blues make the trip to Solitude (7.45pm kick-off) looking for a similar result to their Shield encounter last season when they progressed to the final via a penalty shootout win. 

David Healy’s side, like the Reds, is in the middle of a tough fixture schedule and is also in Premiership action on Friday evening when host ‘big two’ rivals Glentoran. 

With the Reds on the road to Inver Park, McLaughlin is looking to freshen his squad up but maintains the next game is always the biggest. 

“It’s another tough one in a tough week for us,” admits McLaughlin. 

“Three full-time teams in the space of seven days, we’ve got a good squad here and we’ll probably make a couple of changes and rotate a couple of players because we’ve a big game on Friday night away to Larne – a really, really tough place to go. 

“The next game is always your biggest and there is no bigger game than home to Linfield. The boys will recover and get fresh enough and it will be a tough ask. We have a tough game on Friday against Larne and Linfield has a tough one against Glentoran, but I’m sure we’ll both go as strong as we can. Hopefully, we’ll have a big crowd and we’ll have to be at our best to beat Linfield because they are the champions for a reason.”

One such player who may get a chance in the rotated squad is 17-year-old prodigy Sean Moore. The highly-rated striker has featured off the bench in the early stages of the campaign and impressed McLaughlin in his most recent outing in the North Belfast derby on Friday evening. 

“Sean was brilliant when he came on,” McLaughlin reflected. 

“We said to the players at half-time the fans are with us, so let’s give them spark and give them energy and something to get behind us for. I think Sean created that, he created that buzz around the place when he came on. His ability to go past people and get at people; it’s incredible for such a young boy. 

“He was probably that bright spark that sort of gave us that extra push in the final third. Strikers take chances to score goals and they take strikes on, and the ’keepers save. That’s the way it goes, that’s football.”

The Reds’ boss has also backed Joe Gormley to come good and finish amongst the top scorers this season despite a couple of scoreless appearances of late. 

“There is no doubting Joe’s class, he hasn’t scored nearly a million goals for being a bad striker,” believes McLaughlin. 

“That comes and I’m sure that Joe will tell you that he’s missed plenty of chances in the past and he’s always come back and finished as top goalscorer. I don’t think there was a man in the ground that expected Joe Gormley to pass a one-on-one with the ‘keeper – not a chance. 

“Out of the 250 goals that he’s scored, I don’t think he has passed too many of them. He wouldn’t have had that number if he was passing one-on-ones. There is no fault with taking on a strike, it was there to be shot at and it was a good save by the ’keeper. 

“You give the ’keeper credit and you don’t criticise the striker. Joe will end up still being one of the top goalscorers and one of the main men in this team for the next couple of years. That’s just the decision he’s taken on and the ’keeper made a good save.”