Stretch the truth

Jim Magilton expects Cliftonville to be in for another challenging afternoon tomorrow after being “stretched to the limit” in their previous meeting with Dungannon Swifts.

The County Tyrone outfit have enjoyed some notable results against the Reds in recent seasons and, though they went down 1-0 at Solitude back in August, produced the kind of performance which has underpinned their charge up the table throughout the campaign – and Magilton anticipated more of the same this weekend.

“Dungannon are a team that like to get the ball down and play football, and Rodney McAree demands that of them,” he said.

“They have a lot of really good players in their team and they were so good against us at our place earlier in the season. We managed to win the game but we were stretched to the limit.

“Going to Stangmore Park, it’s a notoriously difficult venue to get anything from and they always give us a tough game no matter what. They carry real threats and we’ll have to go there and deal with that but, at the same time, we need to present ourselves properly, carry a threat of our own and be positive in how we go about trying to win the game.”

Dungannon Swifts v Cliftonville
Cash turnstiles
Adults: £15
Concessions: £10