DANSKE BANK PREMIERSHIP: David Healy feels Linfield had chances to win Big Two clash

In the end though the Blues had to settle for a point as Robert Garrett cancelled out Marcus Kane’s spectacular opener for the Glens.

“Our results haven’t been what we would have wanted of late and today it could have been easy for them to throw in the towel, so credit to them, they didn’t feel sorry for themselves,” said Healy.

“After the cup defeat by Cliftonville, I got the response I wanted. I told the players the only way to be counted at Linfield is to stand up and take responsibility – a lot of them did that. I asked the boys to go out and show me why I picked them.

“We had some good performances in our team. On another day, with a little bit more luck, we would have won it. But you don’t get too much luck when you are having a little bit of a rocky spell. We were on edge and the crowd were on edge for the first 10 minutes or so.

“Glentoran got a lift with the early goal. But after that initial opening, I thought we by far the better team. We created enough chances – good chances to win the game. Glentoran are still a huge club – a club with a big support and huge demands.

“It’s a bit like ourselves, the players are under big demands. It doesn’t really matter where the respective clubs are in the league table, a Big Two game is always special and unpredictable. They worked their socks off. And, I expected that for the new manager.”

Healy admitted scoring goals has become a problem for his side of late.

“Scoring goals has become a problem and it’s something we have to address,” he said.

“We’ve tried different avenues...we have tried different players. We’ve went about it different ways – we haven’t just gone for options in the Irish League.

“Maybe we will get lucky in pre-season by bringing in someone who will freshen us up and get us goals.”