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Fans appreciate team effort: Paddy

Paddy McLaughlin says that, while disappointed to have lost on Monday night, Cliftonville’s preparations for this evening’s trip to Larne have not been clouded by doom and gloom.

The Reds produced a stirring finish that went unrewarded against Glentoran last time out and McLaughlin believes the fact that his players departed to a rousing reception from appreciative supporters will provide all the encouragement they need as they set about their next task.

“I think our fans saw a team putting in serious effort and playing with desire and quality,” he explains.

“We feel we deserved something from the game but that’s the way it goes sometimes. We’ve hit a couple of bumps recently for the first time this season, so I don’t think there is any crisis or anything to get too down about.

“There’s no need to panic or get down on ourselves, we’ve another big game straight away so the focus was very quickly on that. Larne are always a very tough side to play against, especially at Inver Park and we’ll roll our sleeves up and get back to work.

“The result obviously wasn’t what we wanted, but there are positives we can take from Monday’s game that you’ll always look to take with you into the next match. We moved the ball quickly, created a lot of chances and were well in control for the majority of the game. We didn’t deal with the momentum that Glentoran generated in the first five minutes of the second-half and failing to take the sting out of that cost us a goal but, from there on, we were back on top again.

“We can expect another difficult challenge from Larne, but our boys have come a long way this year and I’m sure our fans understand that.”


Larne v Cliftonville
Friday, January 21
Tickets: Click here