David Healy insists Linfield have 'no fear' playing Coleraine after explaining Irish League postponement decision
Linfield manager David Healy insists his side have “no fear” of playing potential title rivals Coleraine after Sunday’s Premiership clash was postponed due to European involvement.
In between previous European ties against Zalgiris and Vikingur, the Blues played – and won – league matches as they got their Gibson Cup defence off to a perfect start, but they’ve requested this weekend’s trip to The Showgrounds is rescheduled.
The Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL) have approved Linfield’s request under Rule 21(b) which states all matches shall be played on the original date unless “a club is engaged in a competitive fixture under the auspices of UEFA (either ‘home’ or ‘away’) and receives permission after making application to rearrange its fixture to provide three days between fixtures”.
Healy’s men are preparing for Thursday’s Conference League play-off second leg showdown against League of Ireland champions Shelbourne at Windsor Park, where they’ll have to overturn a two-goal deficit following last week’s 3-1 defeat in Dublin.
It’ll mark an eighth European fixture of the summer for the Blues alongside two Premiership matches while they are also scheduled to open their Co Antrim Shield campaign against H&W Welders on Tuesday evening.
Many expect reigning champions Linfield and Coleraine to be battling for silverware success with both enjoying unbeaten starts to the season, but Healy is adamant there’s no element of fear about taking on Ruaidhri Higgins’ men.
"First and foremost, we played the two league games between ties,” said Healy. “We’ve not asked or requested any other games off.
"Ballymena called the game off because of the Sunday rule they have and the Carrick game was postponed on the Tuesday night because we were playing 48 hours later against Shelbourne.
"Coming off the back of the game, it was an opportunity to potentially rest a few limbs. Thankfully the league and Coleraine have been understanding of the situation.
"We will play the game tomorrow night and then fully focus on when we do play Coleraine. We’ve no fear of playing Coleraine, or anybody, it just happened to be we’ve been on the go for seven or eight weeks.
"We haven’t requested any games off. I know leeway was given to Larne last year, and rightly so because when clubs are in Europe there has to be an understanding there’ll be some kind of comedown, be it cloud nine on Thursday or potentially ground zero if you don’t go through.
"It’s important you refresh, move on and we will move on quickly. The game is off on Sunday and we look forward to playing Coleraine when they decide to push for that.”