The good, the bad and the ugly of Linfield
FOR so long David Healy was King David for his never to be forgotten goalscoring heroics for Northern Ireland, but suddenly he’s become Dirty Healy after a week of going all Clint Eastwood on us.
The rookie manager, who has found himself in the line of fire of late, gave us the good, the bad and the ugly of management in a tumultuous week for the Blues.
Firstly we had the sudden impact of enforcer Raymond Hetherington’s aberration of sending off Crusaders’ David Cushley then having a change of heart and issuing a red card to Mark Stafford instead, only for it to be rescinded later in the week when the referee held his hands up to his mistake.
Just right too, but it’s clear he remains unforgiven at Windsor Park as the dust had barely settled before the Blues had issued an extraordinary statement regarding the state of refereeing in the NIFL.
It didn’t go as far as demanding they hang ‘em high, but in local football terms it was a seismic blow, the biggest club in the land lamenting falling standards and few fans would argue that they don’t have a valid point, but was this really the best way to do it?
“In recent weeks we have witnessed costly mistakes by match officials at Coleraine and Ballinamallard, resulting in either the loss of league points or unwarranted disciplinary sanctions against a player,” said the statement.
“The club recently highlighted the fact that incorrect decisions in professional football can have costly consequences and called on those involved in running the local game to make every effort to improve standards and increase confidence in those officiating at our games.
“The bizarre incident at Seaview on Wednesday evening has further heightened this club’s lack of confidence in our match officials. Linfield acknowledge that refereeing can be a thankless task at times, but Northern Irish football needs match officials that can perform to the increasingly high standard that the public expects of players and teams in NIFL competitions.
“Linfield Football Club calls on the IFA’s Referees’ Committee to urgently examine these incidents and to ensure that those involved are held to account for their actions. We further suggest a full review of refereeing be carried out by the IFA in order to put clearly needed plans in place to improve the quality for the future.”
Extraordinary stuff. Some would say it is clever, some would argue it is calculated. Referees are only human, contrary to popular belief, and with this missive hanging over their heads there is a natural fear amongst other clubs that it will put undue pressure on the men in black to favour the Blues.
This will bring a smile to many fans’ faces, after all Linfield have had some of the best referees I can remember through the years — Peter Rafferty, Lindsay McKeown, David Jeffrey, Lee Doherty and Glenn Ferguson to name but a few!
Seriously though, the Blues do raise a valid point, refereeing does need to improve, but it can’t be on an us against them footing. Surely the clubs can come together and discuss what they want, take it to the IFA and NIFL and work with, rather than against, the referees?
If that was the bad, the ugly then came in another remarkable rant, at little Larne of all things, sandwiched between the very good of Linfield inflicting a first league defeat of the season on Coleraine.
It came courtesy of a penalty and before eyes are raised to the heavens, it was a penalty, Andrew Davey got it spot on and did remarkably well to handle the game the way he did when the eyes of the world were upon him.
And Healy clearly learned a thing or two from Sir Alex Ferguson during his time at Manchester United.
“Coleraine are miles ahead of us at the minute. The good thing for me as the Linfield manager is the pressure isn’t on us this year. The pressure is on Coleraine, they’ve not been there, we have come from behind before, so we are capable of doing it,” he teased.
“It’s a different pressure for these other clubs, can they sustain it, have they got good enough squads to sustain it?”
Straight from the Big Boy’s Book of Mind Games, but there was still time for the ugly, a bizarre blast at striker David McDaid who opted to sign for Larne rather than the Blues, clearly for a few dollars more in Healy’s mind.
“I understand players want to gain the best advantage when it comes to contracts.
“Am I surprised that Larne can over-pay a player who we had been speaking to, a player that had talks with Coleraine and Glenavon? Absolutely,” he charged.
It was a cheap shot, whatever McDaid’s reasons on signing for Larne are his concern, not David Healy’s, mine or anyone else’s.
As for Larne, what a statement of intent that is from new owner Kenny Bruce and chairman Gareth Clements on their ambitions to bring the club back to life.
“Maybe he couldn’t handle the challenge of playing for the champions?” mused an irked Healy (below).
Perhaps, although he seemed to do grand at Cliftonville and at Waterford, but only time will tell if his goals can fire the Invermen up the Championship table and into the Premiership.
As for McDaid himself, the Derryman spelt out his reasons.
“Obviously they’re a league below but they’re investing heavily in the club, in their youth set-up and they’re building a new pitch, new stadium and I just think it’s a project I’d like to be involved in from the start,” he said.
You just know how this is going to end, and I will certainly have a fistful of dollars on it, Larne to play Linfield in the Irish Cup at Windsor Park, refereed by Raymond Hetherington, but that would just be a perfect world.