Recovery mission

Paddy McLaughlin says that recent high-scoring wins have afforded some of his players some valuable additional recovery time amid a testing run of fixtures.

Tonight’s Danske Bank Premiership encounter with Larne is the Reds’ fifth match in less than a fortnight and the Manager expects another “high intensity” occasion in what is the team’s third consecutive weeknight outing against full-time opposition.

Citing the importance of incorporating rest into his squad’s preparations, McLaughlin pointed to the raft of changes made during the respective 4-0 and 6-0 defeats of Newry City and Carrick Rangers as contributing to that recuperation.

“It’s important how we look after ourselves during these Tuesday-Friday runs because this is going to be another match of high intensity from minute one to 95,” he says.

“This is a game that won’t let up because it’s two really good football sides and this being our fourth game in 10 days, it’s been a lot to ask and we haven’t really been doing much training because we’ve only had recovery sessions between the matches because of the demands that are on them.

“I think we’ve rotated well, though. We were able to take boys off against Newry a couple of weeks ago and again when we played Carrick the following Tuesday, as well as being able to leave a few boys out against Linfield this week, but the beauty of leaving those boys out is that there’s no guarantee they’ll all go back in after our performance against the Blues.

“It’s brilliant for the team and brilliant for the Club that we’ve got so many young players coming through and we’ve got a strong panel to take to Larne.”

Larne v Cliftonville
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