Kris Lindsay hoping for some home comfort for Dungannon Swifts

The Swifts were flying high for most of August sitting second after an unbeaten start to the new campaign. But trips to Crusaders and Coleraine saw them ship eight goals and bring them back down to earth again with a bump.

However Lindsay is hoping a return to Stangmore Park today, where they have won their last four games on the bounce, will kick start their season again. He knows it will be tough against a Cliftonville sidewhich carries such a goal threat.

“They have serious firepower not just in Joe and Ruaidhri, but you have Chris Curran and Ryan Curran scoring goals, and threats throughout the team,” said Lindsay. “There are no easy games in this league. We’re at home though and I’ve said all along you have to try and pick up as many victories as you can at home, and then hopefully add to that with points on the road.

“First and foremost you have to long after your home form and we’ve done well at Stangmore so far, so we need to get back to basics and do what we are good at and see where it takes us.”

Despite the heavy defeats Lindsay is hopeful there has been some learning for his young squad.

“We have a very young squad, so this is a learning curve for them, but they need to learn and learn quickly,” he said. “I can’t fault their effort, but it’s making poor decisions at key times which we’re getting punished for.

“The important thing when you’re on a losing run is that you try and stop it as quickly as you can.

“We’re going to have to try and do that at home against Cliftonville, but it’s going to be a difficult, difficult game.

“But it’s one were we have to try and rectify the last two games and try and get some sort of positive result out of.”

Cliftonville are also hoping to bounce back from last week’s defeat to Linfield.

“Any time you lose, you want to get straight back out on the pitch to start picking up points again,” said Reds boss Paddy McLaughlin.

“You always want to put things right so we’ll be going to Stangmore hungry to get a good result for ourselves, but it’ll be the same for Dungannon because they were beaten last Saturday, too.

“Games down there are always difficult. Dungannon like to get the ball down and play football the right way and it’s a tight pitch that they work you hard on. They make life difficult for teams but I’d like to think people say that about us as well, so we’ll be going there expecting a real fight.

“We were unlucky to lose last week because I thought we attacked well and defended well but there was just one moment that Linfield made the most of and that was enough to win the game for them.”