David Healy eyeing a response from Linfield

After hitting the PSNI for eleven in the BetMcLean League Cup the Blues were held to a goalless draw at Portadown last week before being dumped out of the cup competition by Ballymena United in midweek.

It has been a frustrating few days for Healy but he has challenged his players to bounce back at Seaview today and asked the travelling support for their backing.

“We’ve been good at regrouping over the last few years and we’ll get ready for a tough game against Crusaders,” he told the club website.

“I’m sure the Crues will be looking at our result and saying that we threw away a lead.

“We lost games last year and we reacted and bounced back.

“We’re coming up to that important stage now and we need the fans.

“I know question marks come on the back of poor results but we need their backing.”

Despite his disappointment of losing to the Sky Blues Healy says he learns from a defeat.

“I learn from defeats whether it be decisions, tactics or formations, I need to do better first and foremost,” he said.

“There have been changes made, but people want to see results, it’s not even performances people want to see you winning games and going through in cup competitions.

“I was disappointed with the result.

“We probably did look a bit short physically as we has a couple missing, but we still should have had enough to get through.

“We got our noses in front and I thought we were on top of the game, but we didn’t get the important second goal.”