Former Cliftonville star Stephen Small feels the Premiership’s part-time clubs will “have to be more creative” as they look to continue competing against full-time powers.

The Irish League’s four full-time teams occupy top spots with Coleraine and Larne level on 42 points, reigning champions Linfield seven adrift in third and Glentoran sit fourth, three ahead of Cliftonville.

Jim Magilton’s men have put together an impressive seven-game unbeaten league run with no top-flight team scoring more goals than the Reds (13) across the last five played by each team.

Part-time clubs have continued to enjoy cup success – Cliftonville won both the Irish Cup and League Cup in recent seasons while Dungannon Swifts celebrated Irish Cup glory last term – but full-time teams have dominated when it comes to Premiership titles.

placeholder image — Cliftonville have put together an unbeaten league run of seven matches. (Photo by David Maginnis/Pacemaker Press)

While full-time clubs have access to more training time and bigger budgets, Small insists part-timers are forced to maximise every single second.

"They have to be more creative,” he said. “They have to make sure they maximise the training nights they have and sign players with the profile that are going to maintain themselves outside of normal training.

"You only have to look at Cliftonville’s results, beating Coleraine and other teams.

"Joe Sheridan has been a revelation...to be able to bring those young players in and show the form they have is a different skillset. The goals are shifting a bit in terms of full-time teams but you have to be creative with the time you have.”

Takeover talks continue to rumble on at Cliftonville with club members initially accepting Toronto Investment Group’s offer in April, but no deal has yet been completed.

Chairman Kieran Harding previously said new ownership would allow the North Belfast club to transition to a full-time model, and Small feels all is in place for that to be a success at Cliftonville if it comes to fruition.

"It's something they would be keen to do, but they don't seem under any real pressure to just do it because it would be keeping up with other clubs,” he added. “Maybe they will slowly build towards that full-time model.

"They have a full-time academy led by Marc Smyth and his team who are producing players in a full-time sense which is making breaking into first team football a bit easier for the younger players because they've been in that mindset.

"It would be the ideal scenario for Cliftonville and other teams that are part-time. Cliftonville seem to be primed for full-time football more than some other part-time teams."

Small has also praised Magilton and assistant Gerard Lyttle for continuing to pick up results amid uncertainty surrounding the club.

"They've got one of the best recent records in the league which is really good under the circumstances,” he said. “They've a really young team with inexperienced players coming in on top of the on/off takeover talks.

"It's very exciting for them and it's testament to the hard work going on...they're not blessed with the amount of money being spent at the top of the league so they've had to work hard on the training pitch.

"Jim and Gerard as a partnership, Gerard is a very good coach and they'll be concentrating on the things they can control, which is on the pitch and the training ground.

"Players sometimes don't get affected by that sort of thing because they're in their own bubble of training and playing matches. I would imagine Jim and Gerard have kept them focused on the job at hand."