On repeat

Paddy McLaughlin insists there’s no disparity in the significance of tonight’s clash with Carrick Rangers in comparison to Saturday’s victory over the same opponents.

Three days after securing Samuel Gelston’s Whiskey Irish Cup progress at the expense of the east Antrim outfit, the Reds return to the Loughview Leisure Arena on Danske Bank Premiership duty, with the Manager adamant that their weekend exploits will have no bearing in how they approach this quickfire renewal of acquaintances.

“Your next game is always the most important,” he says.

“We don’t prioritise anything, we try and win as many games we can in every competition we enter. It’s one game at a time and, once Saturday was out of the way, the focus turned to this one.

“It was a tough battle on Saturday and we had to work very hard to come through it. The players worked their socks off as usual and got their reward for it, so we’ll be looking for the same kind of performance and the same kind of work rate.”

As was the case at the weekend, Cliftonville’s performance could be dictated somewhat by the conditions and McLaughlin certainly expects some similarities in how the contest will play out.

“There hasn’t been a heatwave, so that won’t have helped the pitch but on Saturday both sets of players had to deal with it and they dealt with it really well,” he adds.

“There’s been a bit more rain since then, so it will probably be more of the same. It’s not just Carrick, a lot of pitches suffer at this time of the year because of the weather and you just have to get on with it.”

Carrick Rangers v Cliftonville
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