UEFA Europa Conference League second qualifying round, first leg
Cliftonville vs Auda (Wednesday, 7.45pm)
Cliftonville defender Jonny Addis claims that his side will be “gunning for victory” in tonight’s Europa Conference League second round of qualification, first leg tie against Latvian side Auda at Solitude.
After a thoroughly devastating week for the Irish League in Europe that saw Larne, Linfield and Crusaders all crash out of their respective competitions at the first hurdle, the Reds will be hoping to learn from their mistakes when they enter the Conference League at the second-round stage.
Larne will have a chance to save their blushes when they drop down from the Champions League to the Conference competition at the third-round stage, however, this week all eyes will be on north Belfast.
Cliftonville have had a busy summer transfer window so far, although fans will be disappointed most of the transfers have been through the departures gate rather than arrivals. Losing the likes of Ronan Hale and Ben Wilson to Scottish sides will leave a crater-sized hole in attack, however at the heart of the defence is stalwart Addis, who had perhaps his best season last year. Winning the Irish Cup and being named in the NIFL team of the year, seemed just reward for the 31-year-old, but he is now most definitely looking forward.
“Yeah it was brilliant to lift the trophy last year and get some recognition in a personal sense too but we have very much moved on from that now and have our sights set firmly on the season ahead.” He said.
“We have had a great pre-season so far, I’ve played a few 90 minute games already so I feel we are well up to speed going into Wednesday night’s game.
“The local sides will be disappointed with how their games went last week, but it’s not up for me to critique what went on there. I think undoubtedly the product of the league has improved, but perhaps it brings us all down to earth a bit that there is plenty to work on and we can never take a result for granted on the continent.
“I think we still like to go into these games as underdogs, and it will take a while adjusting to the favourites tags in games.”
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Addis admits that after the draw was made, themselves and Larne probably felt that they got a reasonably kind draw against Latvian opposition, however, that idea was soon blown out of the water after Larne lost 7-0 on aggregate to RFS last week.
Whilst Auda lie sixth in the domestic table at present, the big defender is sure that his side will be taking nothing for granted.
“Since we only found out who we would play last week, neither side will know an awful lot about each other but we will be spending the couple of days before the game going through a lot of data.” The ex-Glentoran man said.
“Jim (Magilton) and the coaches have been on these journeys before and they will know the messages they want to get across, then it’s up to us as players to carry out the work on the pitch to get the job done.
“We know we will have to be at our best and it is crucial that we go to Latvia next week with a result in the bag because you don’t want to go there chasing the game.”
Cliftonville will have to get a result without injured captain Rory Hale and Kris Lowe; with Odhran Casey also out after suffering a horrific leg break in May’s Irish Cup Final. But Magilton’s men should not be discounted in front of their home fans.