Queen's promotion dream driven by 10 wins in a row but momentum 'doesn't matter' as boss James Lavery prepares for Ballyclare Comrades

​Friday’s victory over Tobermore United marked a 10th successive success by The Students to secure second spot in the Premier Intermediate League and set up a shot over two legs at moving into Irish League football’s second tier.

In contrast, Ballyclare Comrades arrive at The Dub tonight aiming to ultimately beat the drop off a record of just 11 wins within the full 38-game Championship programme.

However, Lavery rejects any suggestion of an advantage to Queen’s and maintains a continued policy of focus only on short-term goals remains his players’ greatest chance at long-term gains.

"It was always a case of 'next game, next game, next game',” said Lavery around the brilliant run of form in recent weeks under high pressure given the high stakes of a promotion shot as the prize. "We weren't talking about getting second or what other teams had been doing.

"Momentum is big but it's not something we'll take as anything other than it has got us in this position and that's it.

"Other than that it doesn't matter other than we can go and attack Tuesday in a positive way.

"We didn't mention the run once...genuinely we'd so many games it was about coming out of each match, recovering and preparing to be in the best shape possible for that next one coming up.

"It's a cliche I know but we only looked at the next game...over the past week we've had Saturday-Tuesday-Friday and each one, in hindsight, huge.

"So we only looked at preparation and recovery with the ice baths, rest and nutrition.

"In the last 21 days we've played seven games...all really difficult teams who play different ways and with different surfaces.

"I've known all season long we could be competitive against anyone (but) there was no looking ahead ever.

"It was only about doing what we do, having our gameplan for each match."

Despite the quickfire switch from chasing league points to now competing in play-off tests tonight then away to Ballyclare on Friday, Lavery draws confidence from tried-and-tested methods.

"After the Tobermore win I got home and started watching Ballyclare, plus we've a good network of scouts and people who go out and look at teams for us,” he said. "So for the players it's about the recovery process but, for me, it'll be conversations and watching so by Tuesday comes around we'll know everything about Ballyclare.

"That's been the process that has worked for us so far and the players will have all the information they need going into Tuesday fully-prepared and knowing the task.

"We'll be ready to go for it...the players will be getting info through and we have a template in terms of principles which always stay the same even if the gameplan changes.

"We'll just prepare as we do but aware it's a difficult challenge against Ballyclare and a test we will attack in isolation."