Picking our momentum

Jim Magilton says Cliftonville must strive for momentum in the closing months of the season.

Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Linfield at Solitude lifted the Reds back into the top half of the Sports Direct Premiership and they will continue to work their way through a backlog of rearranged fixtures when they travel to face Portadown this evening.

Originally postponed on January 3, this particular game further added to a hectic schedule when it was curtailed due to floodlight failure just a fortnight ago.

Magilton leads his troops back to Shamrock Park bidding to build on their weekend success.

“We need to take that belief and momentum and turn it into a surge,” he said.

“We’re still playing catch-up in games and that’s going to go on for some time now. Every week is a busy week for us because we’re playing every three or four days and that’s really testing us. We don’t have great depth in our squad but we’ve managed to get a few bodies back from injury recently and that’s important for us – but having said that, we’ve also lost one or two as well.

“The players did so well on Sunday and that was a win for them and by them. We need to take the belief from the weekend, build on it and make sure we keep up that level of performance.

“If we can get some kind of form and momentum behind us, that will do us the world of good because we have a lot of important games one after the other week after week at the minute.”

Supporters are reminded that, while there will be no formal admission charges to tonight’s game, Portadown FC will be operating an ‘honesty box’ voluntary payment policy due to cash turnstiles being in operation for last month’s abandoned fixture.