Swifts must all front up to our defensive pain, admits Lindsay
both sides. People who pay their money to watch Irish League football want to be entertained and I’m sure they will be on Saturday.”
Asked to expand on his thoughts on Jeffrey, Healy was hugely complimentary of the former Linfield manager, who won an astonishing 31 trophies during 17 years in charge at Windsor Park. Before that, he was a popular captain with the Blues.
Healy is a hero to many in Northern Ireland for his iconic goals at international level. Ahead of their meeting, he revealed Jeffrey is one of his.
“I’ve supported Linfield all my life and for most of my adult life Davy was the manager at Linfield. Davy was my hero,” said Northern Ireland’s record goalscorer.
“I have huge admiration for him, and to go head-to-head with an Irish League legend, that’s what a young, inexperienced manager like me wants to do. I thrive on that.
“You want to test yourself against the best people and there is no bigger character and more successful manager in the league at the moment than Davy.”
Healy will have Shayne Lavery back from international duty and possibly Bastien Hery returning from injury.
He is hoping other sidelined stars like Daniel Kearns, Jordan Stewart, Chris Casement, Josh Robinson and Mark Haughey will be back soon.
The Blues lost on penalties at home to Cliftonville in the County Antrim Shield in midweek, while Ballymena won a spot-kick battle with Crusaders in the same competition. Healy was disappointed but not devastated. He views today’s game as much more important. KRIS Lindsay has said Dungannon’s defensive woes are not just the fault of his back line.
The Swifts have conceded four times in each of their last three games and today they head to Carrick Rangers under mounting pressure to turn things around quickly.
Lindsay, however, believes it is wrong to single out the defence for all the blame and feels others need to take greater responsibility, pointing to the overall performance in last Saturday’s 4-1 defeat to Linfield.
“I’m not saying it’s the defenders only, I think it’s extremely harsh to blame the defenders for Saturday,” he said.
“Mistakes happened all over the pitch that we were punished for, not just from the back four.
“We’ve got to work on stuff on the training ground and that’s my job now, to try and come up with solutions, and I’ll work hard to do it.”
Dungannon were so difficult to beat in the first month, but have leaked goals at an alarming rate since.
They conceded three at Crusaders, five at Coleraine and four at Cliftonville. The last three games have brought a 4-3 loss at Warrenpoint, a 4-0 League Cup defeat to Linfield and last weekend’s 4-1 league loss to the Blues.
Lindsay added: “We need to make sure teams are working hard to score against us, because at the minute they are not.
“We have to rectify that against Carrick. It is about trying to get back to how we were playing at the start of the season.
“It was individual mistakes on Saturday that were punished, and we have to rectify it. That is down to me, it’s down to the players, to everyone, to regroup and to go again.”
Dungannon beat Carrick 2-1 three weeks ago, but it was an unexpectedly testing match. Lindsay expects a similar test in today’s meeting.
He added: “It will be an extremely tough game, just as it was when we played them here a couple of weeks ago.
“We are expecting nothing less when we play them on Saturday. We know how difficult it will be, but it’s a game that is very important for us.
“We are in and around where Carrick are in the league, and we need to make sure we go there and get a result.”