Let’s step up again: Magilton

Having produced a committed performance in Saturday’s goalless encounter with Coleraine at Solitude, Jim Magilton has called on his players to dig deep again as they prepare to host Larne on Sports Direct Premiership duty this evening.

Cliftonville’s weekend display was a marked improvement on their opening day defeat to Bangor and Magilton hopes that, with a “nervousness” out of their system, the Reds give a truer account of their capabilities when they return to action tonight.

“I think we showed to our supporters on Saturday that we’re better than we showed against Bangor,” he said.

“We wanted to put certain things right from that point of view and, judging by the way the fans stayed with us right up to the end against Coleraine, I think we showed our supporters the kind of commitment and determination that they want to see.

“Clearly, we can be better with the ball, there’s no doubt about that. There was a little bit of carelessness on that side of things but you can maybe attribute that to a certain nervousness on the back of how we had played against Bangor the previous week.

“What we want to do now is make sure that the intensity, tenacity and effort that we put in on Saturday is our benchmark and one that we bring into the Larne game. We know we’re a good team and we proved that on Saturday but this is another big test that will demand another big performance.”

As encouraged as he was by his players’ application at the weekend, Magilton was left bemoaning the injuries that forced early exits for both Rhyss Campbell and Luke Conlan – neither of whom will be in contention to feature tonight.

“It’s very early in the season to be losing players of that quality and calibre,” he added.

“They both looked pretty bad at the time and we’re probably expecting long-term absences for both Rhyss and Luke, which is a blow to the players themselves and to our squad as a whole.

“We don’t carry the biggest squad but we’ve no choice other than to work away with what we’ve got and we’ll support the two boys in the background as they try to work their way back to fitness.”

Cliftonville v Larne
Adults: £15
Concessions: £10
Tickets: General Sale
Members Tickets and Season Tickets valid