Danske Bank Premiership: Crusaders v Cliftonville (Saturday, Seaview, 3pm)
CLIFTONVILLE boss Gerard ‘Skin’ Lyttle says his strikers must aim for “eight or nine-out-of-10” to keep their place in the team ahead of Saturday’s make-or-break league showdown with Crusaders at Seaview.
Front men Darren Murray and Daniel Hughes - both signed in the January transfer window - were cup-tied for last weekend’s League Cup final win over Ards, but are available for selection on Saturday afternoon.
Davy McDaid and Jay Donnelly started in the Reds attack last Saturday, with McDaid getting on the scoresheet in the 3-0 win: “You can’t keep everybody happy,” Lyttle acknowledged.
“Our strikers know that they have to be eight or nine-out-of-10 every week because there are players who can take their place. That’s what will drive us on - competition for places.
“Our centre-forwards aren’t stupid; we’ve spoken about it as a group and I’ve said 'if you’re scoring goals, you’re in the team'. There is no argument. That’s what they’re paid to do. There’s competition on the wings and at the back as well,” the Cliftonville manager added.
“I have five centre-backs available for the Crusaders game and I can only play two of the five. So it’s great. I have to manage those things and put the right team out on the pitch on any given week."
Chris Curran is suspended for Saturday’s Seaview clash and is the only absentee from last weekend’s squad. Lyttle insists the euphoria of last weekend’s cup win - his first as manager - has been well and truly shelved and he couldn’t have been happier with this week’s training. The strikers actually stayed on after Thursday’s session to do more work.
“The tackles were flying in on Thursday night,” he said.
“You’re kind of worried a player might get hurt but, at the same time, I don’t want to take that edge out of them. We’ve trained well this week and they’ve been focused on this game since last Saturday night.”
Lyttle added that all of Cliftonville’s remaining league games are “must-win” if they’re “serious about challenging for the title”. Despite only drawing with the Crues at Seaview on St Stephen’s Day, Lyttle regarded that performance as one of their best all season.
“Crusaders beat us at the start of the season, 1-0, when I thought a draw would have been a fair result," he said.
"On Boxing Day, I thought it was one of the best games we’ve played. I thought we were the better team. But we switched off for five minutes and they scored two goals. I couldn’t believe it. But we came back and scored two goals, which was the least we deserved.”
