United clan

Declan O’Hara has called for one last push from everyone involved as Cliftonville bid to secure European qualification in today’s Play-Off Final with Glentoran.

The Reds travel to The Oval for their final game of a campaign that began in the first qualifying round of the Europa Conference League and, as they bid to book a return to the competition, interim boss O’Hara is steeled for a thorough examination from an in-form opponent.

“The Glens are a quality side,” he says.

“You can run through their squad and rhyme off all the names that you’d look out for, so we know we’re in for a very tough match but this is what it all comes down to now, we have to go there and give it the best shot we can.

“When the Club asked me to take over, we were guaranteed three more games in the season but we’ve turned that into a fourth by reaching the Play-Off Final and I’m delighted we’ve got a chance to play one more match for Europe. That was the target and we’re still in there.

“I couldn’t have been more proud of the players against Coleraine on Wednesday night because they gave me everything, but we’ll need to go again and step it up even more against the Glens.

“There hasn’t been too much time between the games but we’ve tried to use every hour we can preparing as best we can. Winning on Wednesday meant we got ourselves an extra training session, we’ve spoken about how we want to go about things and now it comes down to one last game that we have to give everything in.”

Cliftonville can look forward to being backed by a typically fervent Red Army and, having fed off that support during victory over the Bannsiders, O’Hara is hoping another collective effort can help see the job through.

“The fans have been great, the players have given me everything I’ve asked of them and I have to say the staff I have around me have been excellent,” he adds.

“We’re all in it together and everything we’ve done in the season comes down to this one match. It’s going to be very tough but we won’t go there with any fear.”

Glentoran v Cliftonville
All-ticket
Adults: £12
Concessions: £8
Tickets: Here