Fits and starts

Having paid repeated credit to his players’ dedication throughout a relentless run of fixtures in recent months, Paddy McLaughlin has again saluted the dedication of the Club’s physiotherapy team ahead of tomorrow’s Danske Bank Premiership date with Warrenpoint Town.

The Milltown encounter will be Cliftonville’s 17th outing of 2021 and, with seven games slated for April, McLaughlin says the efforts of Chris McKenna and Stuart Holmes remain crucial to an ongoing collective effort.

“Our two physios, Chris and Stuart, have been fantastic,” he explains.

“They’re working right throughout the week, coming in on their days off and seeing the boys individually. They’ve been phenomenal for us and I can’t thank them enough for their work.

“We had a couple of boys leaving the ground on Saturday limping, strapped up and with ice-packs – and that’s the competitiveness and intensity of the division.

“Two games a week, especially for part-time players, is tough, but the boys have been fantastic and deserve all the credit.”

On this weekend’s joust with Warrenpoint, he adds: “They always demand that you work very hard to get anything against them and some of the results they’ve had recently prove they’re a dangerous opponent, so we know we have to go there with the right attitude and we have to be willing to do our jobs from start to finish.”