David Healy praises Linfield star who 'trained this week with phone in his pocket'

The 28-year-old was drafted into the side for only his sixth appearance of the season due to the suspension of Ben Hall, but he turned in a five-star showing.

Although it was Matthew Fitzpatrick’s second half strike that duly helped the Blues pocket three crucial Premiership points, Healy singled out Whiteside for a special word of praise.

“Scot hasn’t had a lot of game time this season,” he said. “He has kept himself ticking over.

“His partner is due to give birth anytime now...in fact he trained this week with his phone in his pocket, just in case anything happened.

“But his performance and fitness levels were top drawer against a Bangor front line that has cause problems for other teams.”

Healy admitted he had to remind players of their responsibilities following a tepid first half showing.

“We gave huge respect to Bangor; they are strong at home, and they put you under pressure,” he added. “We had to dig out the result.

“I’ve watched Bangor so many times over the last few years, I’m actually proud of their progress, as a team and as a club, but I think the points were more valuable to us than they were to Bangor, in terms of where we want to get to.”

Incredibly, it was only the second time the Blues had won away from home this season.

“People make a lot of our results over the last series of games, but when you break it down, we’ve drawn with Coleraine twice, the most expensively assembled team in the league, and Cliftonville, where it’s always difficult,” he added. “Success is hard to come by, especially in this league with the competitive nature of it.

"The hardest thing to do after having a bit of success (winning the title last season) is having that hunger, desire and momentum to go again.

“That’s where we are at. We started the season a little bit slow because of the European games, we had the knock-on effect from that.

“I’ll take the positives from where we are...three points and a clean sheet at a difficult venue like Bangor.

“I thought our second half performance was very professional, our game management was good. That’s credit to the players.

“We were missing loads of experienced players who know how to manage a game, but collectively, as a group, we were good enough to see out the game.

“We always move on quickly, we have another two games this week, so it’s important to try and maximise as many points as possible.”

Bangor boss Lee Feeney was happy his boys went toe-to-toe with the reigning champions.

“It turned into a scrap which kind of suited us,” he said. “We were up against a full-time team with a lot of top-quality players.

“I felt we had the best chances. I believe if we had got that first goal, it would have changed things. I was disappointed with the goal we gave away just after half-time.

“The ball travelled a long way and Fitzpatrick had time to turn. We should have had more bodies in there, but I’m proud of the players.”