David Healy: Linfield's last Boxing Day defeat always sticks in my mind... the day Glentoran won the league

Linfield boss determined to put things right in tonight's Oval revenge mission

Linfield boss David Healy is still hurting from the3-0 Boxing Day defeat at the Oval back in 2019.

Steven Beacom Twitter

March 02 2021 08:04 AM

Linfield manager David Healy admits there will be even more incentive than normal for the champions in tonight's crucial Big Two derby clash away to Glentoran.

Fresh in the mind of the visiting team will be last week's 1-0 loss at home to their fiercest rivals, when an injury-time cross from Conor McMenamin ended up in the Linfield net.

Go back a little further and the Blues' previous visit to The Oval will also spur Healy and his players on. That was on Boxing Day in 2019 - long before the word coronavirus was used day and daily - when the Glens won 3-0, sparking exuberant scenes of celebration on and off the pitch for those connected with the east Belfast outfit.

Post-match, jubilant Glentoran manager Mick McDermott was filmed in a supporters club hailing the victory and roaring to joyous fans that 'the sun rises in the f****** east'.

Later that season, after Linfield had won their third title in four years, Healy stated: "People talk about the sun rising in different parts of Belfast but the big trophies always land in the south of Belfast!"

There's not much love lost between the clubs these days. In the league table, 12 points separate them - with Linfield in top spot and the Glens in sixth - but McDermott's side have two games in hand, meaning tonight's encounter is a huge one in the context of the race for the title.

"We lost 3-0 the last time we were at The Oval on Boxing Day when they won the league, that's always in my mind," said Healy.

David Healy

"There was also last Tuesday's match. Derby games don't normally come around soon after each other and this gives us an opportunity to put it right.

"You only get three points for beating anyone, nothing more and nothing less, but there is always a little bit extra on it."

In an interview with Sunday Life Sport last month, Healy was honest enough to declare that as Linfield manager, beating Glentoran means more to him than beating anyone else - words which the Glens' Twitter account used to mark their side's dramatic success at Windsor last week.

Northern Ireland's record goalscorer Healy said: "When I was quoted talking about what it means to beat Glentoran, it was never to offend anyone.

"For a Linfield or Glentoran manager in the last 100 years in football, if you beat your biggest rival, it means more. It just does.

"I grew up a Linfield supporter and, while there have been teams of the last 20 years who have won leagues, as a kid growing up and now as the manager, it does mean more when we beat Glentoran.

"As I said after last Tuesday's defeat to Glentoran, it was gutting to see the goal going in.

"Sometimes there are twists of fate and this is one of them because we play them again within a week. Glentoran are a good side and are on a good run, and they should be buoyed by their result against us last Tuesday, but it's a new game and we go again."

I EnJoY BeATiNG GlEnToRaN MoRE tHaN AnYoNe ElSe. #WeAreGlentoran #COYG 💚🐓 pic.twitter.com/05IhvwUdZF
— Glentoran FC (@Glentoran) February 23, 2021

While there has been much publicity surrounding winger Navid Nasseri, who joined Linfield the day after helping the Glens win last season's Irish Cup, the other player who moved from The Oval to Windsor Park at the same time, Conor Pepper, was praised lavishly by Healy after Friday's 2-1 win over Larne.

"Conor Pepper was outstanding. He started the season really well, he had one poor game against Cliftonville and something Conor is going to have to get used to here is that if you have a poor game, you'll be seen as the worst right-back, never mind the previous nine or 10 games when he was very good," commented Healy.

"We took him out, but he played against Coleraine and he was very good, and against Larne on Friday night he was outstanding. His work-rate, his tenacity, his energy - that's what he gives you.

"Conor might go under the radar with others, but he doesn't with me.

"Kyle McClean was also outstanding in midfield, with and without the ball, alongside Stevie Fallon and Jamie Mulgrew. It might be easy for someone of Jamie's age to take the foot off the gas and say 'I've won this and that', but he doesn't, and he was fantastic against Larne, as was the whole team."