Weekend at Ferney

Barry Gray has warned Cliftonville to expect the unexpected when they face Ballinamallard United at Ferney Park this evening.

The Reds travel to Fermanagh on the back of their first Danske Bank Premiership win of 2018 and, while determined to use last week’s 3-0 victory over Dungannon Swifts as a launchpad for a run of form, Gray is wary of the significant change in personnel at the Mallards since the sides last locked horns in mid-November.

“Gavin Dykes has been very active in the transfer market and there’s likely to be a big change from the Ballinamallard we’ve seen before this season,” he explains.

“I’ve watched them personally but, when a team brings in so many new players, it’s difficult to predict what you’re going to get from them and anything you’ve seen before probably goes out the window a little bit. On the other side of that, sometimes teams don’t necessarily know what they’re going to get from themselves when new players are trying to settle in, so they’ll still be working on certain aspects of how they want to perform.

“From our own point of view, we need to go there and focus on our own performance. We won’t be complacent, we know how difficult Ballinamallard make things at Ferney Park.

“Last week, our target was just to beat Dungannon – the detail of it didn’t matter, only the three points did. Any winning run has to start somewhere and we want to replicate what we did in October and November by stringing another run together, so now we need to make that two in a row and try to keep building from there.”

Admission
Adults: £11
Concessions: £7
Under 12s: Free with a paying adult

Sean Graham’s Weekend Preview