Crues boss hopes run of wins continues

The north Belfast boys have roared eight points clear at the top of the Danske Premiership table and, even though Cliftonville have played one game less, Baxter knows his boys can’t afford to take their foot off the gas.

“We are at the half-way stage of this campaign, there is a long way to go,” he said. “We just have to keep knocking off the matches on a weekly basis and hope to pick up as many points as possible.

“With the Festive period about to kick-off, no one will be looking at the table. We are hoping the Carrick game goes ahead as planned... the state of their pitch has caused concern in recent weeks.

“We’ll go there looking for the points. We have a full squad available apart from young Andy Mitchell, but he played for the reserves in midweek and has almost fully recovered from an injury he picked up against Ballymena six weeks ago.

“We had a good win at Dungannon last week in horrible conditions. The pleasing aspect for us was when we conceded a late equaliser, with just didn’t lie down -- we went for it over the last four or five minutes.

“We got a great ball in to box and O’Flynn’s finish was simply fantastic.”

Carrick boss Gary Haveron will attempt to lift his boys following their defeat at Glenavon – they now haven’t won for three months.

“Mistakes are costing us in every game,” he said. “It has to stop. It’s really frustrating, but it’s the story of our season. It simply can’t keep happening. We now face another massive test.”