Wary through

Jim Magilton says Cliftonville must meet the challenge of tackling a fired-up Dungannon Swifts side head on.

The sides lock horns at Stangmore Park this evening off the back of contrasting midweek fortunes that saw the Reds get the better of Bangor while Rodney McAree’s side suffered a 6-0 loss against Linfield – a scoreline that Magilton admits he is “very wary” of in the countdown to kick-off.

While he expects the Swifts to be hungry for a positive response, the Cliftonville boss is eager to see his side lift their own performance levels having been frustrated for periods of back-to-back wins over Glenavon and the Seasiders earlier in the week.

“I feel that there’s much more in us and we’ve only shown our quality in little patches of those games,” he says.

“We obviously had to show a lot of hunger and quality to come from behind against Glenavon and to win it in injury-time when we’re down to 10 men shows the level of determination we had to come through that game.

“The Bangor match was a good win in the end but it could have gone either way. We gave away quite a few chances that, on another night, Bangor score and you’re looking at a different game – but, at the same time, we created quite a few too and could have scored more ourselves.

“They were good wins but I think we came out of them knowing that there’s more work to be done.”

Questioned on his emotions upon hearing that Dungannon had suffered that heavy loss against the Blues, Magilton replied: “Very wary.

“Knowing the quality of Dungannon’s team and the quality of their Manager and coaching staff, they don’t need an awful lot of motivation when they play Cliftonville so, if anything, there will be extra motivation.

“The players won’t want a repeat of anything like that, so I expect all guns blazing and we’ve got to match that and obviously come out with a bit more ourselves.”

Dungannon Swifts v Cliftonville
Friday, February 13
Adults: £15
Concessions: £10
Tickets: General Sale
Cash turnstiles in operation