Ryan Curran urges Cliftonville to seize automatic European spot

The Reds have been in good form of late with only one defeat in their last eight games.

They have a chance of closing the gap on second placed Coleraine to three points with victory over Glentoran on Tuesday night and Curran says they have to aim high.

“We need to aim for second place and automatic qualification for Europe and worst case scenario third and then depending on how the Irish Cup goes obviously,” he said.

“Cliftonville have a good history in the European play-offs, but I don’t think you want to go to that scenario.

“It’s a one-off game and you don’t know how it will go.

“We’ve two massive games now before the split, and big games coming up. Hopefully we can gain some ground on Coleraine and make it interesting,” he added.

“I’m not going to say second place is realistic, but I think we have to aim high.”

Coleraine and Glentoran passed up the opportunity to strengthen their bid at the top of the table after playing out two successive score draws in the past week.

As it stands, Coleraine are 11 points behind leaders Linfield and two ahead of the Glens, albeit having played a game more.

Larne are also right in contention for the top three and lie just two points behind Glentoran.

Tuesday’s Irish League fixtures (7.45pm kick-off): Cliftonville v Glentoran; Portadown v Larne; Warrenpoint Town v Glenavon.

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