Linfield's David Healy relishing Irish League title battle across the board
The colours of Linfield and Larne may have been the only ribbons added to the Gibson Cup across each of the past six seasons but Blues boss David Healy is quick to reject suggestions of any two-horse title race.
Having steered Linfield to four consecutive league-winning campaigns from 2019, Healy has had to watch Tiernan Lynch’s Larne lift the prized silverware on back-to-back occasions.
The two trophy-chasing rivals clash today at Windsor Park but Healy was keen to dismiss both talk of any added weight on the outcome beyond three potential points and praise the Premiership rivals for recent strides towards closing the gap.
"Larne deserve immense credit,” said Healy. “The size of the squad that Larne now possess, the quality and depth that they have, is going to create a huge problem for teams like us going forward.
"First and foremost we have to make sure we're looking after ourselves, we've started the season okay.
"It's definitely too early to say a game like this on Saturday is going to determine what way the league title is going to go between us and Larne.
"There'll obviously be other factors...you're Glentorans, Crusaders, Cliftonvilles etc so there's going to be other teams in or around fighting. I don't think it's the 'be all or end all’ win, lose or draw on Saturday.
"When you win the league back-to-back then all of a sudden the pressure's from within. I know what the pressure's like when you win a league title, you go and back it up and back it up again.”
The arrival of signings from beyond the traditional Irish League borders has, Healy feels, yielded a knock-on impact within the domestic game.
"We've brought players in from the mainland, far afar...Tiernan has (at Larne), Glentoran have, Coleraine now have, Crusaders have,” said Healy. "What happens then to some of the local boys in or around our league if not playing for Linfield, Glentoran or Larne is them maybe moving (to other Irish League clubs).
"Because we've been filled with players from elsewhere, good local lads maybe three, four, five years ago would've been at the top one, two, three teams in the country find themselves at another team. So other teams are improving, signing better quality or more established players.”