CLIFTONVILLE v LINFIELD LET’S NOT GET CARRIED AWAY

Waterworth knows early season promise will count for nothing if Blues tail off as they did last year

LINFIELD striker Andy Waterworth insists it’s premature to talk up the Windsor Park club’s title credentials after a blistering start to the Danske Bank Premiership.

David Healy’s men, who have maximum points from their opening three games, laid down a marker with a 2-0 win at Crusaders last week.

But while the Big Two giants are showing encouraging signs, Waterworth is aware a similar start last season ended in a frustrating fourth placed finish in the league.

“It’s been a really positive start but we can’t get carried away,” he said. “We haven’t forgotten we won our first five games last season and look how that ended.

“We’ve shown positive signs in our opening three games and keeping three clean sheets is an added bonus, but we know things could change very quickly.”

While Waterworth is experienced enough to temper expectation, he has been impressed by the inpact of summer signings Daniel Kearns and Joel Cooper (inset).

Kearns, who was on target in an opening day win at Glenavon, is playing behind him in a No10 role, while winger Cooper scored the opener in last week’s Seaview win.

“Both Daniel and Joel have settled in very quickly and they

complement each other,” said Waterworth. “Joel is very direct and Daniel is full of ideas. He’s a joy to watch.

“We’re in a 4-2-3-1 formation, so my job as a No9 is to make runs and help those guys get on the ball. They’re being creative behind me and it also allows me to get in the box more.”

Waterworth says Linfield took a lot of positives from last Saturday’s win at the

Crues.

David Healy’s men dominated long periods and picked up the points with goals from Cooper and influential skipper Jamie Mulgrew.

The display and result was in stark contrast to last season when Linfield lost five times to Stephen Baxter’s men in all competitions.

“The desire was there to put right what went wrong last season,” Waterworth told Belfast Live’s new That’s What I Call Football podcast.

“Given we didn’t take any points off them last season, we felt we had to put a marker down. It was a dominating performance and probably one of the best we’ve produced at Seaview.”

On today’s trip to Solitude, Waterworth is bracing himself for a titanic tussle with a Cliftonville side who have won one, drawn one and lost one of their three league outings to date.

“It’s a tough place to go and we’ve never found it easy there,” he said. “Under Barry Gray they are more direct and physical, but we’ll go there with confidence after our start.”

Elsewhere, the champions

travel to

looking to bounce back from their Blues defeat, while host

Oval.

at The

THE DESIRE IS THERE Striker Waterworth believes the Blues laid down a marker by taking the spoils at Seaview.