FRESH from their North Belfast derby win over Crusaders on Monday evening, Cliftonville make the trip to the Ballymena Showgrounds to take on the Sky Blues on Saturday (3pm kick-off) looking to make it back-to-back wins in the league.

Team boss Jim Magilton has warned his players that they could be on the receiving end of bad result if they don’t prepare properly for their clash with The Braidmen at the weekend.

Jim Ervin’s Ballymena are slumped to the bottom of the table with one win from their first seven and Magilton was in attendance for their most recent set back when they surrendered a 1-0 lead at the break in their 3-1 defeat to newly promoted Loughgall at the weekend.

Magilton feels that his Cliftonville team have been competitive in their league encounters to date and hopes that it will continue on their visit to Mid-Antrim.

“I was at the game on Saturday [Ballymena United] and if we’re not ready for it then we could be on the receiving end of a bad result,” he said.

“I think we have been competitive in every league game. Take aside the County Antrim Shield game and take aside the Scottish Cup game - where I thought we just left a little bit out there - I think we have been competitive in all the league games, which is really important.

“We’ve had a tough run in terms of playing Linfield, Glentoran, Larne and now Crusaders. That is tough and it will be nice to have a home game and get home again.

“You have to applaud the fans too. They were magnificent tonight and I know it was a derby but their passion and desire for this football club is amazing.”

The Reds’ boss was pleased that his side limited Crusaders chances during Monday evening’s victory and praised their resilience and bravery.

“It’s not through the want of trying for them (Crusaders),” Magilton acknowledged.

“We did limit them to chances. We talked about it throughout the week. We set ourselves up to know what their strengths are.

“They were going to put quality deliveries into the box, and they’ve got fantastic players in their team who will react off that. We just filled in gaps

“I thought our focus was really good tonight. There is a hunger and desire in the group. I can’t praise them enough and that’s from day one.

“I’ve got great staff and that helps because as a manager, you want to deal on a more personal level with the players and the lads deal with the group.

“The lads have been great, all praise goes to them really. No matter what we say to them, once you cross the white line you have to show courage.

“The game is the greatest teacher to us all. Tonight was a great night for us, we’ll accept that and enjoy that, but we have to get ready for Ballymena at the weekend.”

Magilton was also keen to credit Gerard Lyttle for his work on set-pieces that paid off when Cricky Gallagher broke the deadlock from a corner kick routine.

“Gerard Lyttle has to take all the credit for the set pieces,” admits Magilton.

“I don’t do set-pieces, Gerard Lyttle does all the set-pieces.

“The lads have applied themselves throughout the season and Gerard has reinforced that on a daily basis when we have them. It was a fantastic finish from Chris Gallagher. We broke and could have scored more, but we can’t be greedy.

“We acknowledge that Crusaders were going to come out and have a real go at us and they did, one or two things might have bounced their way but we have to enjoy tonight.

“We were on a mini run of not getting the results. Hopefully this is the fillip for more to come.”