Healy relishing Blues’ showdown with the Crues
CRUSADERS may be back in fourth place in the Danske Bank Premiership table but Linfield boss David Healy still considers the Seaview side as their biggest rivals in the race for the title.
The teams that have shared the Gibson Cup for the last five years meet at Windsor Park on Friday night and a Blues victory would open up what would surely be a decisive 11 point gap between the teams.
Linfield’s comfortable 4-1 win at the Ballymena Showgrounds gave them a six point advantage over the chasing pack, but Healy was already looking forward to the visit of the 2015, 2016 and 2018 champions.
“It will be a big test against Crusaders, coming up against real challengers for the league title, Crusaders are that,” he said.
“So it will be a tough game but hopefully after our recent run of wins, we have a bit of belief and momentum going into that.
“The Crues game been the real deal for the last couple of years, we’ve won the title or they’ve won the title. They are very good at what they do and we have to be prepared for that.
“They are hit or miss games, sometimes swayed on a wonder goal, sometimes swayed on a mysterious error by a referee or official, but we look forward to our battles with Crusaders who will be fired up after their defeat in the cup final.”
Goals from Mark Haughey, Jordan Stewart, Jimmy Callacher and Andy Waterworth, his fifth in three games, overturned Joe McCready’s 19th minute strike for Ballymena but it was another player who Healy singled out for special mention after their third successive win.
“Joel Cooper was seriously unplayable,” said his manager.
“He’s only 23 but been about for ages and has played over 200 games. My only disappointment was we didn’t get him earlier, we’ve been monitoring him.
“He did everything but score tonight but he started on the left, moved to the right and ended up in the 10 and anywhere he played he caused havoc. There’s plenty more to come from him.”
For Ballymena boss David Jeffrey, it doesn’t get any easier with a visit to Solitude to tackle Cliftonville next up on Saturday, not your first choice of venue when looking to end a run of seven straight defeats.
But at least the performance, he acknowledged, was a vast improvement on the previous week against Carrick Rangers.
“I can’t fault their effort and commitment — we were the better side against Linfield for the first 20 minutes of both halves, scored a fantastic goal and created other chances — but we are being punished for every mistake. And the only way to break a losing habit is by not making silly mistakes.” • CLIFTONVILLE claimed a 4-1 friendly victory over Drogheda United on Saturday courtesy of doubles from Conor McMenamin and Calvin McCurry, with Jordan Adeyemo responding for the visitors.