Cliftonville v Glentoran
Saturday 16th December, 3pm.
This Saturday we visit Solitude for the first time this season.
Things have changed dramatically since we last played Cliftonville, two months ago. At We went into that game in fifth place, two points ahead of the Reds. That day we were beaten by two goals from Rory Donnelly, one at each end of the match. Since then Cliftonville have moved twelve points ahead of us due to a very strong run of form, allied to our own poor performances since October.
On our last visit to Solitude, back in February, we shared the points after taking the lead with a first half Curtis Allen goal. That game typified the form we’ve shown of late with a number of chances to increase the lead and potentially make the game safe, wasted before the equaliser from Daniel Hughes in the second half. This Saturday we’ll need to take any chances we create as the Cliftonville forward line has been in good form of late.
Gary Haveron: “Cliftonville have been in great form and after bringing in a couple of quality, high profile signings in the summer they’ve got a very effective forward line. But I thought we did very well against Crusaders in the last game and I think anyone who was at the match would agree we deserved more for our performance. We’ll need to be equally committed and hard-working tomorrow against the Reds. We also need to start taking our chances a lot better because I genuinely believe that’s what cost us against Ards and the Crues. We missed a number of good chances at 0-0 in both matches. If we’d taken those I’m convinced the result in both games would have been very different and we’d be sitting in a better place today.
We have Curtis and Knowlesy available for Solitude but Saturday is too early for Ross Redman and John McGuigan. Ross trained very well and should be available for Carrick next week. John McGuigan has upped his training significantly and is also well on schedule for a first team return. Tiarnan McNicholl is recovering more quickly than expected. We initially thought he’d torn his hamstring but it wasn’t so severe so he should be back before too long.
Nathan Kerr may miss tomorrow. He’s pretty well recovered from his head injury but he had a bug this week. He’ll be a loss as he was immense at Seaview. If Nathan misses out James Ferrin and Willie Garrett come into the mix.
Its always a decent game at Solitude so with a lot of commitment and better finishing from the team, allied to strong backing from our great travelling support, I’m confident we can do well tomorrow.”
Our supporters travelling by private car tomorrow are reminded to park in the residential areas above Solitude off the Cliftonville Road (Cardigan Drive, Knutsford Drive etc) and are requested by the police to approach and leave the area via the Westland Road and avoid travelling citywards on the Cliftonville Road after the match to avoid traffic congestion. Motorists are also asked to consider local residents and emergency vehicle access.
Those travelling by Bus/ Coach should be at Fortwilliam Roundabout / M2 by 2:15 pm at the latest. Police will meet the buses at the top of the off-slip road at Fortwilliam and advise drivers/Clubs re arrangements for both moving to Solitude and then away from the ground at the end of the match.
