Town to business

Barry Gray expects an entertaining contest when Cliftonville tackle Warrenpoint Town tomorrow.

The Reds have been embroiled in some gruelling encounters with teams in the bottom half of the Danske Bank Premiership in recent times but, ahead of his first trip to Milltown as an opposition Manager, Gray believes it’s in the Point’s nature to play on the front foot.

“I don’t expect it to be the dogged game that we’ve seen in weeks past,” he explains.

“They have a style of play that, especially at home, lends itself to attacking football and I’m sure they’ll want to continue that. They’ve had some good results recently but, from our point of view, it doesn’t matter if we’re playing at Milltown, Ballinamallard, Linfield or wherever – it’s about us doing what we need to do.”

Gray needs no reminding about Cliftonville’s less than impressive history at the County Down venue but jokes that he’ll be out to preserve his own personal run in the fixture.

“We’re aware our record down at Milltown because I’ve been on the other side of it,” he adds.

“The stats and everything that’s gone before are nothing to do with me from a Cliftonville perspective, so they won’t affect me, the staff or the squad. We’ll be going to try and win another game and that’s the bottom line of it. The detail will stay between me and the players and we’ll just get on with things as normal.”

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