The clock is ticking down to the biggest day in Cliftonville’s history with excitement peeking for the visit of Celtic.
A year ago they hosted a Celtic XI in a pre-season friendly with any thoughts of a Champions League qualifier instantly dismissed.
One championship win later and a 5/1 success in the Champions League draw and the bhoys from Belfast are preparing to welcome Neil Lennon and his double winners.
Close to 5,000 fans will watch the match as well as live gtelevision coverage with Reds boss Tommy Breslin hoping to catch Celtic cold.
“It’s a big night in the Club’s history and there’s sure to be a fantastic atmosphere,” Breslin told the Cliftobville website. “One that we will hopefully be able to thrive in.
“Celtic will be used to playing in tight, compact stadiums given how many of them there are in Scotland and they’re no strangers to walls of noise either.
“I’m sure they’ll not be intimidated but what’s more important from our point of view is how much our players can feed off our own fans.”
Reds defender Barry Johnston added: “No matter who we’d got in Europe, it was always going to be a massive occasion.
“It’s been 15 years since the Club was last in the Champions League and we’ve all been looking forward to making up for lost time.
“Obviously getting drawn against Celtic means we’ve a huge task ahead of us, but we won’t be over-awed. We have to go out there and give it our best shot and do ourselves, the Club and the supporters justice.
“Our fans love to make a bit of noise and I’m sure they’ll be at their loudest once the match gets underway. They’ve driven us on so many times before and, with this being the biggest match of many of our careers, I know we’d all love to hear them pump up the volume even more.”
Quite simply the club / management / players have been aware of this game taking place for some time so everything should have been put into place to ensure players are primed and ready. Really if we play anything at all we should dominate the game, control the pace to suit and take the game to them at every opportunity.
Taking the initiative early on & try to hit them with an early goal or two, force them into mistakes then we can slow the game down to our tempo or step it right up with fresh legs.
We only have OURSELVES to worry about, our preparation could have been much better but now it’s about putting in the same effort as the opponents and our skill / class should tell.
For me tonights result is secondary to the safety of our support.
Keep safe Bhoys, any sign of problems walk away, don’t bite, don’t get involved and keep those in your company close and together at all times.
If push comes to shove, suck it up and walk away.
Enjoy the night inside the stadium but be extra vigilent at all times in the city.
HH