Jim Magilton: Cliftonville want to continue making Solitude a fortress ahead of Newry City visit

While the Reds are coming off consecutive defeats to Larne (Premiership) and Dungannon Swifts (League Cup), they’ve only lost one league match at home this season – against leaders Linfield – and conceded just three goals in seven outings.

That has been a characteristic of Cliftonville over recent seasons with Crusaders the sole side that collected more points at home last season and champions Linfield in 2021/22, and it’s something Magilton is keen to continue.

"Home form is always important in any campaign,” he added. “Being strong at home gives you an opportunity to compete.

"We have been strong at home, very competitive, won games and we just want that to continue.

"If you can win your home games and pick up points on the road it's the basis for a really good season.

"We're here to win the games and we're hopeful of doing so."

Cliftonville have been almost faultless against teams that currently sit in the Premiership’s bottom-half with Loughgall the only side that have left Solitude with a point, but Magilton’s men have picked up just 10 points from a possible 24 in matches against their fellow top-six outfits, despite performing well for large periods in those games.

The former Northern Ireland international believes those results will come as confidence within the group continues to grow.

"We have played well,” he added. “These games are often decided by a mistake or a wonderful goal, but we've just made some mistakes and the opposition have capitalised on that.

"We have to look at the performances and take the positives out of them.

"There are fine lines in those matches and we just have to continue working hard and at some stage get over the line.

"I would have been more disappointed if we didn't compete, but we are competing and we'll get over the line.

"There's great confidence in that and we're building those levels up."

Cliftonville defeated Newry 3-0 at the Showgrounds in August thanks to goals from Luke Turner, Ben Wilson and Rory Hale, meaning they’ve won all of their last nine matches against today’s opposition.

However, Gary Boyle’s side will undoubtedly be buoyed by progressing to the BetMcLean League Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday evening after penalty shootout success over Carrick Rangers, and Magilton isn’t taking anything for granted.

"It was a really tough game up there,” he reflected. “They had a couple of early chances but didn't take them and we took the one or two chances that we created.

"We were delighted to win because going away to Newry is really difficult.

"Gary has done a fantastic job with them and that result midweek will give them great confidence.

"They have lots of good attacking players that can hurt us and we have to be at our very best to win the game."