Healy sees no way back for Linfield

DAVID HEALY paid three visits to Celtic Park as a Rangers player and suffered three defeats. The Linfield manager returns on Wednesday expecting the same outcome against Brendan Rodgers’ version of Celtic that he ranks in a different league to the Parkhead teams he faced.

Healy, who spent two seasons at Rangers, featured as a substitute in a 3-0 defeat in 2010/11 after which Walter Smith’s side rallied to clinch the title. The following year, he came off the bench in a 1-0 loss then endured 90 minutes in the dugout as Celtic once again prevailed by three after Rangers had plunged into administration.

Now the Northern Irishman faces a second-leg Champions League qualifier against a squad he thinks are revving up to dismantle their domestic rivals once again.

When asked if, on the evidence of their Friday night first-leg reverse, he expected the Invincibles to enjoy a similar season, Healy said: ‘Absolutely. Celtic will, I’ve no doubt, run away with the league again.

‘I certainly do recall some difficult visits to Celtic Park with Rangers. Celtic were terrific. But this Celtic team — no disrespect to the Celtic teams I played against — are miles ahead of anything in Scottish football. They are so clinical with the chances that they get. They don’t let teams off the hook when they are on top.

‘Celtic are always liable to open you up. They have beaten — hammered, actually — better teams than us last season in Scotland. So for us to come out of it with a 2-0 is a positive result, I think.

‘Hopefully, we can do a bit better with the possession we get at Parkhead. But it’s a game where we can go without the pressure. We are not going to go through.’

Former Celtic No 1 Pat Bonner believes one-time Rangers back-up keeper Roy Carroll is the main reason Celtic aren’t going into the return leg with a bigger lead.

‘Roy looks fit and sharp at 39, which is great,’ said Bonner. ‘He kept Linfield in it. It could have been five or six. I thought his double save in the second half was great.

‘I was talking to someone before the game who said he gives Linfield about 11 league points a season. So he will just love going to Celtic Park after proving in the first leg that he can do it.’