We’ve let Hamilton down with our silly mistakes: Clingan
day. I could hear her shouting at me if I missed a chance in an under-age game but thankfully I can’t hear her with the big crowds. My parents will travel anywhere and my mum even wanted to come down to Sligo in pre-season. My wee cousin Jay is Cliftonville mad and I’d love to walk out with my three-yearold daughter Daisy at a cup final. She’s a bit too young to understand football but I try to spend as much time as I can with her. She was in the house watching the play-off game with Glentoran and when I scored I took my top off. She said, ‘Daddy, why did you take your top off ?’… she just didn’t understand! Football is important to me but Daisy comes first and Paddy recognises that. There’s more to life than football and we all have families. I work nine to five and go straight to training and time with her is limited. Her mum and I are separated but we work it out. It’s hard at times and I found that out at Christmas when the schedule is packed. They are the big games you want to play in but time spent with Daisy is precious.
Q So was Daisy’s arrival the best day of your life?
Date of birth: Place of birth: Previous clubs:
A
One hundred per cent. I was born on August 24 and she was due on May 18. I have worn 24 on my shirt and thought about the chances of her being born on May 24. On that day I got the phone call to tell me she was ready to be born and it’s a special number to me. It changes your life and I can’t wait to take her to games when she can understand. I took her to a match against Glenavon when I was injured and 10 minutes into the game she wanted to go home. After one game against Glentoran I went over to her and she was sleeping.
Q But when you’re older she will have memories of watching you play which will be nice.
A
It’s just hard when you get a phone call and she says, ‘Dad
Pic by Peter Morrisson dy, can you lift me tonight? I want to see you’ and you have to go to football. Probably the hardest time I had was over Christmas when it was the first time we were apart. I wasn’t with her on Christmas Eve night and I lay in bed crying my eyes out because it hit home, I wasn’t with her in the build-up to Christmas morning. You see families together and it was hard being on my own. I had just scored the winner against Coleraine but then it hit home that I wasn’t going to be with Daisy to help her leave something out for Santa. It was tough to take, not being able to put her to bed or seeing the excitement on her face.
Q How often do you see her?
A
It’s hard because you put on a brave face in front of people. People think, ‘He’s flying, scoring goals for Cliftonville’ and ‘His life’s great’ but there’s more to life than football. I see her on a Wednesday and Friday for three hours and some weekends.
Q Has she got the Cliftonville kit? full
A
I got her the away one. She used to wear it a lot. I think she prefers the dresses at the moment. The odd time if I’m wearing my tracksuit she’ll decide to put it on. I take her swimming, she loves that and I like to have my own time with her to have that bond.
Q What are you looking forward to over the next few years?
A
I want to win more trophies. I won the Championship with Warrenpoint but the County Antrim Shield win this season was special, my first final and one to remember. We didn’t play well against Ballymena United at Windsor Park but we still know how dangerous we can be. When the seven minutes of added time went up, that gave us a little hope and we thought that we’d get at least one chance. Just when I was looking forward to extra time we went and won it right at the death. It was this team’s first triumph and it was wonderful to share that moment with our brilliant fans. You may not get to many finals in your career so we will cherish that one forever.
Q You also hit a hot streak over the festive season, scoring winners against Coleraine, Crusaders and Larne. How did that happen?
A
There’s probably a number of factors behind that. I just try and do the same things and have the same pre-game routine. I’ll wear the same shoes until I have a bad game! An old job held me back with respect to my training schedule but I now work for Killyleagh Health Centre, nine to five so I don’t miss any training. If you start missing training, you’ll likely lose your place in the team.
Q Can the Reds end their Irish Cup pain this season?
A
It’s been a long time for the club, and I haven’t played in an Irish Cup final. You watch them but want to be involved in a huge game like that. I have to be honest and say that I would rather win the league than the Irish Cup but I can appreciate that it would be a special day out and the Cliftonville fans have wanted it for a long time. The fans have been following us in huge numbers and getting behind us. We won at Seaview on Boxing Day for the first time in 10 years and Paddy keeps challenging us to go on and make more history.
WITH the weight of expectation coming down on Glenavon boss Gary Hamilton, it’s time for his players to take the strain.
That’s according to veteran midfielder Sammy Clingan, who has been in the thick of a run of form that has yielded only two wins from the club’s most recent nine outings.
Glenavon have conceded 65 goals in 27 Premiership games this season — over 20 more than any other team outside the bottom three and 19 more than they let in over the duration of any of the last four campaigns.
The fall since the summer has been spectacular. It was only last term that the Lurgan Blues won the most points of any season in the club’s history with 70, and finished behind only Linfield and Ballymena United.
Now they’re 13 points off the top six and already with nothing to play for until the summer.
As a result, the 2019-20 post-mortem has begun early, with inevitable questions over the 8-1, 7-0 and 6-0 defeats.
For Clingan, though, manager Hamilton should not be the subject of fans’ frustration.
“He’s a very good manager and everybody here still has faith in him,” the former Northern Ireland midfielder said. “I know the buck lies with the manager but as players, we have to take responsibility for results this season. We’ve let Gary down.
“There have been so many games in which we’ve given away stupid goals. We’ve gifted them to the opposition, it’s not like we’ve been getting cut open.
“Mix-ups have been happening far too often this season throughout the whole team. The defence rely on the rest of us to do our jobs in front of them and as a collective, we’ve got to be better.”
Hamilton has already had to turn a sinking ship round once before. When he initially took the Mourneview Park reins in December 2011, the club was bottom of the table after the guts of a decade of basement battles, including one relegation.
Fast forward two and a half years and the Irish Cup was back in Lurgan for the first time this millennium.
It will take a similar, if less drastic, reversal of fortunes to yield more silverware in the near future, given the shifting financial sands of the Irish League landscape.
But Clingan is adamant that Hamilton is still the man that gives the club their best chance.
“I’m sure he will (turn things round),” the 36-year-old said. “Everybody has so much respect for him and what he has achieved with this club. He has been brilliant for me personally and so many of the players feel the same.”
Clingan was out for three months from September to December but he’s optimistic he can put his injury problems behind him and is even open to the possibility of extending his career for another season despite commuting from Glasgow.
“I’ll talk to Gary and see,” he said of his future beyond the summer. “I still feel good and I’m still covering a good distance during matches. I just need to keep clear of the injuries now. I had a bit of an Achilles problem at the start of the season but hopefully that’s the end of it.”
Glenavon host Crusaders at Mourneview tomorrow, the third in a run of six consecutive fixtures against the top six.