CLIFTONVILLE manager Jim Magilton believes that every home game for his side is massive ahead of Glentoran's visit at the weekend.
Following Declan Devine’s departure at the beginning of the week, the interim management of Tim McCann and Paddy McCourt bring their side to Solitude on Saturday (3pm kick-off) hoping for a victory that will kickstart their slow beginning to the Boyle Sports Premiership season.
Magilton is demanding a reaction from his side after a disappointing showing in their 2-0 defeat to Champions Larne.
“They [Glentoran] are in transition from whoever goes into the job,” Magilton acknowledged.
“It is a big game for us, every home game is a massive game for us and we need to show the fans a reaction from the game tonight”.
In the aftermath of Tuesday's defeat at Inver Park, Magilton rued the lack of aggression for the hosts goals, though did feel his side improved after the break.
“It was good play until Dean [McMaster] mistouches it and then they pounce and capitalise," Magilton recalled.
“To be fair, we haven’t laid a glove on him [Matty Lusty]. He sat strikers down. If you look at our strikers, and how aggressive centre halves ours, we don’t get those opportunities.
“That was a lesson learnt. We went to Windsor and didn’t play particularly well, we’ve come here and not played particularly well.
“The second half, you’ve no alternative other than pride to actually go out and play. We changed the shape and gave us a little bit more impetus going forward.
“We put balls in the box- not with real great quality. We had a little bit more about us, but the game was over in 45-minutes”.
Magilton believes that personal pride for the players ensured the defeat was not more comprehensive, but was unhappy that for the second time this season they have lost momentum after winning two games in succession.
“That comes down to personal pride, that comes down to individuals and collectively as a team” Magilton believes.
“There were real moments and scares in the second half too- but we had to throw caution to the wind.
“It is about managing minutes for our players and trying to get players rest and players on the pitch too.
“Overall, a really disappointing night. Coming here, we’ve won a few games, I think it is the second time we’ve done that, going into the Windsor game. We done that tonight but it seems to be too much for too many of them”.
The Reds boss was not accepting any excuses that team selection contributed to their downfall in East Antrim and insisted that players needed a rest whilst others needed minutes.
“Luke Conlon and Shaun Leppard are experienced players and they’ve come in tonight, and we want to get them as many minutes because it is a long season for us,” he added.
“They are experienced players. They've been here before, played well in our team for long periods.
“Again, there are no excuses tonight. People turn up and you would imagine they want to play in these games. These are the games where you test yourselves in and it is two out of two where we actually haven’t shown up”.
