CLIFTONVILLE assistant manager Gerard Lyttle isn’t interested in his side entertaining and is entirely focused on them returning to winning ways in their last chance bid to keep their top-six hopes on track. 

The Reds travel to the Coleraine Showgrounds to take on Coleraine this evening (7.45pm kick-off), knowing that anything less than three points will see them needing a minor miracle to sneak into the top half come Saturday’s cut-off point. 

A win against the Bannsiders would see the Solitude outfit draw level on points, and after successive league defeats, Lyttle believes the attitude and mental set-up have to be right if they are to emerge victorious this evening 

“At this stage, entertainment doesn’t do anything for me,” Lyttle confessed. 

“As long as we win the game, I think that has to be the attitude and the mental set-up is going and winning games. 

“The last two games just haven't been good enough in terms of getting the win and that has to change on Tuesday.”

Lyttle concedes that to reach the top six and be guaranteed a European playoff spot at the end of the season if they fail to win the Irish Cup, they will have to rely on other teams and admits that preparations have been tough with games coming thick and fast. 

“All we can do is pray, hope and work hard,” he outlined. 

“I hate saying it, but you are trying to rely on other teams slipping up. The games are coming thick and fast. 

“It’s so many games in a short space of time and it’s about recovering. It’s difficult trying to fit in all our preparation, hopefully on Tuesday, we can put a team out to win the game.”

The Reds assistant manager felt they dominated the majority of possession in their weekend defeat to Ballymena United, but felt the decision-making was costly in the end. 

“It didn't happen, and again we knew coming here that it was going to be difficult - it always is at Ballymena,” he reflected. 

“The pitch plays hard as well, in terms of how we want to play, it’s difficult but I thought we tried to still play. 

“I thought we probably dominated the majority of the possession, but unfortunately possession doesn’t win you games. 

“When we got to the final third, I think our overall decision-making let us down. Again, we did not create enough chances, didn’t put enough balls in the box and didn’t test their back three and Sean O’Neill enough.

“It was probably one of them results where before they scored, we probably would have took a draw. It was going that way and there didn’t seem to be anything in it, in terms of going and winning the game. Again, a mistake has cost us and it’s lost us the game.”