CLIFTONVILLE assistant manager Gerard Lyttle wants the squad to focus on themselves in the coming games as they embark on the busy festive period.

The Solitude side dropped to third following their defeat to Portadown at the weekend and on Saturday host a Glentoran side that are level on points with them in third spot (3pm kick-off) before making the short trip to the Shore Road to take on Crusaders on St Stephen’s Day (Thursday, 3pm kick-off).

Lyttle acknowledged that all sides in the league are capable of beating anybody on their day but wants his squad to focus on themselves as they aim to return to winning ways.

“Every game, it’s not a cliché but it’s a mad league this year and everybody is capable of beating of beating everybody,” Lyttle said.

“We’ve just got to focus on ourselves. We’ll get back and train hard next week. We’ll look at Glentoran as we do every team and prepare right for it and get ready and go again before turning our attention to Crusaders on St Stephen’s Day in what’s a busy festive period.”

Lyttle took the lead role on Saturday in the absence of Jim Magilton [suspension] and whilst disappointed to not to get to half time only a goal behind, felt that the nine men carried out their game plan after the break.

“At 1-0, to be honest I was thinking ‘let’s get at half-time at 1-0 and we could regroup’,” he revealed.

“At 10 men, I’m going we can rejig it at half time. Obviously, we were forced quicker to have to do that. It is hard and disappointing, and there’s not too many things you can do really when you lose two players.

“I think the only thing we could do at half-time was ask the players to stay in good shape, work hard and keep good discipline and keep the score line as it was. To be fair, the boys did that.

“I thought we frustrated Portadown in the second half. We were looking at a set-play or a wee bit of magic, but it wasn’t our day.

“It’s one of those days. We’ve had a bad day and that’s something we have to take now, move on quickly and just put it to bed.”

On the red cards, Lyttle didn’t feel there were any complaints with Jonny Addis red card for a last-man tackle but felt Conor Pepper may have been hard done by.

“Jonny is definitely (a red) - there is no talking about that - but Conor Pepper I think there is a little bit of common sense from referees,” Lyttle opined.

“He’s just been booked, and I think the pitch played a part in him getting his second yellow card, in terms of timing your tackles and timing your passes.

“I don’t think there is any contact in Conor’s second yellow card and for me, the ref has been too quick to give him another one. That’s disappointing, obviously.”

Joe Gormley may be a doubt after limping off with an injury in the second half, with Lyttle believing the heavy pitch contributed to his withdrawal.

“We were concerned about the pitch beforehand,” he said.

“I don’t want to be standing here making excuses about pitches and stuff because it there were two teams, but I think things need to be better in terms of what we played on today.

“A lot of players will be sore after the heavy pitch. We will assess him [Joe] in training during the week and see how he is but hopefully it’s nothing too serious.”