CLIFTONVILLE boss Jim Magilton sees Friday evening’s clash with Carrick Rangers as an opportunity to continue their momentum and claim another three points.

The Reds make the trip to Loughshore Leisure Arena (7.45pm kick-off) looking to make it nine wins from their last 10 league outings.

Magilton does acknowledge it will be a tough encounter against a Carrick Rangers side that have climbed into the top six with an away win at Coleraine at the weekend and he feels they will be confident and buoyant heading into the game.

“It is a notoriously tough game,” he agreed

“They make it tough and I don’t expect anything different.

“We know that they have plenty of qualities and strengths. We just need to be well aware of that, but then we have to go and perform and perform to our levels and we’ll see what happens.

“It was a fantastic away result (at Coleraine) and again, a really tough game to go and get a result.

“They will be very confident and buoyant and again we have to try and quell that and understand that it is a tough game.

“Winning games of football and we’re generally playing very well. We picked up another three points (against Ballymena) so we will be going there looking for the opportunity to go and get another three points.”

Magilton’s side continued their impressive league showing with a 3-0 win over Ballymena at the weekend despite losing Rory Hale and Luke Turner with injuries in the build-up.

The Reds’ boss was pleased with replacements Ben Wylie and Stephen McGuinness, but felt the overall performance wasn’t their fluid best.

“Injuries happen and you have to deal with that,” he acknowledged.

“At the end of the day, it gives other players an opportunity to come in. They did and they performed well.

“It was a matter of us just making sure that we weren’t sloppy and didn’t concede goals. Again, credit to the players. They’ve done great this season and it was important we won the game.”

Ronan Hale’s double brought him to 13 goals for the season in all competitions and Magilton was full of praise for Hale and midfielder Ronan Doherty for his stunning strike to make sure of victory late on.

“He [Hale] is goal hungry; once he gets a sight of goal there is only one thing on his mind,” said Magilton.

“He is desperate to score goals and he has proven that he has done great for us. We are delighted with him and we hope it continues.

“Ronan Doherty’s was a great strike in what was probably an indifferent afternoon for Olly, but again, his standards and the quality of his performances have been so high and so good.

“We’re going to have little dips and it is important when we have little dip that we see out games. We saw out the game today.

“On another day, we’ll play better and maybe not win 3-0 but winning 3-0 at home is important for us and it is important to keep building on the momentum.”

Magilton was also pleased to be able to integrate January signings Ben Wylie and Shea Gordon.

Wylie made his first league start and played an hour before being replaced by Gordon and he feels that they more they are integrated the better they will become.

“They are going to improve the quality in our squad,” he insists.

“They are both very good players. I’ve got a lot of faith and trust in both of them.

“It was important to get Ben Wylie integrated into the group. Ben has only been with the group for two-to-three weeks and Shea has had one training session. The more they are integrated with this group, the more they will understand what way we want to play, and they’ll be better.”