Bright spots

Though circumstances dictated they were unable to claim the result they wanted, Jim Magilton hopes his players took confidence from their performance during Tuesday night’s trip to Portadown.

The Shamrock Park showdown was brought to a halt after 41 minutes due to floodlight failure and, as Cliftonville prepare for tomorrow’s North Belfast Derby duel with Crusaders, Magilton is keen to see the Reds build on a positive midweek display.

“Obviously the outcome of the night was frustrating but there were large parts of our play I think we came away feeling good about,” he said.

“You want the players to take that with them and try and build on it. I felt we were good value for the lead that we had. We had played some good stuff in good areas of the park and, after the disappointment of the way Friday’s game against Dungannon had gone, the response was good. It’s just a shame we weren’t able to see it through but obviously that was taken out of our hands.”

Ahead of Cliftonville’s 200th League meeting with the Crues, he added: “We have to take the positives of Tuesday into the Crusaders game.

“I’ve spoken about us playing catch-up in terms of the amount of games in hand we have – and obviously now we’ve got another one to catch up on after what happened in Portadown – but it’s important we get points on the board.

“We gave away a few chances on Tuesday night and that’s something we need to eradicate from our game but there was an improvement in our performance and that’s what we need to take with us into Crusaders.”

Cliftonville v Crusaders
Saturday, February 21
Adults: £15
Concessions: £10
Tickets: General Sale
Members Tickets and Season Tickets valid