David Healy hails Jamie Mulgrew’s appearance record

If inspirational skipper Jamie Mulgrew plays at Milltown it will be his 600th appearance in a Linfield shirt.

Remarkably, the 34-year-old also made his 500th appearance for the Blues at Warrenpoint.

Mulgrew has been a regular in the Linfield squad for the last 14 years and Healy is full of admiration for his captain.

“It’s an incredible achievement to play that amount of games for different clubs throughout your career, but to do it here, the greatest club in the country, is a fantastic honour,” he told the club website.

“I’m so pleased for Jamie, he’s the captain and he leads by example.”

Healy also took charge of Linfield for the first time at Milltown.

Reflecting on his own milestone Healy said he is still hungry for more success despite having five trophy-laden seasons at Windsor Park already.

“I’ve always said managing Linfield is a challenge,” he said.

“It is difficult. Sometimes you don’t feel like you get too much joy out of it - you win a game and it’s basically just relief.

“The five years I’ve been here have been an incredible learning experience for me.

“I love what I do. When I’m working with the players who have been here during my whole time and before - the Waterworths and Mulgrews etc - to see the development and improvement is fantastic.

“I enjoy managing Linfield Football Club, I love winning games, I love winning trophies, which we’ve done, but I’m chomping at the bit for more. That’s what I want out of the players.”

Healy’s 250th game in charge saw his side share six goals with old rivals Glentoran at Windsor Park.

The Blues boss was disappointing though that a packed crowd couldn’t witness the drama at Windsor Park.

“It was a typical Big Two game that had everything, probably the only disappointing thing was we were basically playing in front of an empty stadium,” said Healy.

“This was a game the crowd would have been excited by with the banter flowing between the fans when the lead exchanged hands.

“I thought we were far and away the better team, others might disagree, but when you’re there and watching it you always felt we were on top of the game.

“At the start of the second half they probably looked hungrier for about five or 10 minutes, they got themselves back in the game and put us on the back foot.

“But we regrouped and when we scored our second I thought we probably should have kicked on and held the lead for longer, so to concede so soon was disappointing.

“But I can take the positives out of the game with the effort and application as well as we are still unbeaten seven games in.

“The players are giving me everything at the minute like they normally do.”

Despite Linfield’s impressive form Point boss Barry Gray is hopeful his side can pull off a result.

“Safe to say Linfield are the in-form team at the minute in the league, however for us this is certainly a game that we look forward too as it gives us the opportunity to test ourselves against the best,” he said.

“I don’t recall Warrenpoint ever beating Linfield in the Premiership so the task at hand is to try and beat this stat.

“All players love to play against the best.

“You can never rule out the underdogs.”