CLIFTONVILLE boss Jim Magilton is amazed at the number of times that Linfield have been written off and show bouncebackability.
The Reds are on the road on Friday evening when they travel to the Clearer Twist National Stadium at Windsor Park to take on the Blues (7.45 kick-off), hoping to make it three wins from three.
Magilton was on hand to watch David Healy’s side crash to a 3-0 opening day defeat at the hands of Ballymena United, however they hit back with a 2-1 win over Big-Two rivals Glentoran at the weekend and the Reds boss wasn’t surprised with their powers of recovery.
“I was at the game against Ballymena, and for large parts – in the first half especially – they dominated the game without taking their opportunities,” he recalled.
“It’s amazing how many times they get written off, and how many times they bounce back. They’ve got so many really top players with great experience, top manager and top staff, and no surprise.
“We’ll go there, we’ll relish the opportunity. The stark contrast of playing at Bangor and then going to Windsor in grass that looked fabulous the previous weekend. We’ll look forward to it. It’s one to think about during the week, but back to work.”
On the back of their first two wins, Magilton is expecting his players to go into Friday evening's encounter with momentum, though acknowledges that they face a huge challenge.
“The players bounce off that (momentum), they respond to that and feel good about themselves,” believes Magilton.
“Our reality is that we’ve got to focus on what will be a huge challenge. Everytime you go there, it is a huge challenge.
“Again, we’ll look forward to it. Players should be confident and they will be confident. It’s again coming up with a game plan to try and win.”
Summer signing Kyle McClelland struck the opener in the weekend's 3-0 win over Bangor and his manager was full of praise for the quick start.
“It’s a great strike, he’s come alive and he’s always been a technically a really good player, although I’m really, really frightened to say that because it will definitely go to his head,” he joked.
“Overall, just really pleased. We always ask and you always hope for a quick start. Two games, and we’ve won both of those games. It’s about learning from today and then taking it into next week again.”
Magilton believes there are still learnings that the team can take, and feels they can be more clinical in front of goal. We could have been more clinical in our finishing, Gareth [Deane] made a couple of really good saves,” Magilton reflected.
“There is always great learnings from every game and one of those today is being clinical, especially when you are on top and especially acknowledging that Bangor have to come out, they have to go and press for a goal, which leaves gaps and we have to exploit those gaps and we did.
“I thought we controlled the game, and we should have killed the game off but overall, I keep reiterating – I’m really pleased”.
Cliftonville face Linfield on Friday evening with kick-off scheduled for Windsor Park at 7:45pm.
