Paddy McLaughlin insists he isn’t pressing the panic button after suffering back-to-back league defeats to Crusaders and Glentoran.
The Cliftonville boss also says he would have “bitten your hand off” to be five points off the summit heading into the business end of the campaign.
After losing two games in their previous 20 league outings, the Reds are licking their wounds after a recent 2-0 loss to the Crues and Monday night’s 2-1 defeat to the Glens.
But McLaughlin has played down suggestions of a crisis and is confident his players can bounce back in Friday night's clash with Larne at Inver Park.
“We’ve had a couple of bumps and it’s disappointing, but I don’t think it’s a crisis or anything to get too down about,” he said.
“Yes, it has been a bump on the road but there’s no need to panic or get too down on ourselves. We’ll be OK.”
While Monday night’s defeat to the Glens saw Cliftonville slip to third in the table, the Reds are still within touching distance of leaders Linfield at the summit.
“Some people forget that we are still only five points off the top,” said McLaughlin. “If you had offered that to me at the start of the season, I’d have jumped at it.
“It shows how far we have come that we are down and disappointed at being five points off the top of the table in January. It’s crazy to think that really.
“It goes to show the standards and demands we have set and how far we have come as a team. Fair play to our boys. I don’t want to see them get their heads down.”
On tonight’s trip to Larne, who are also looking to bounce back from Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Dungannon, McLaughlin said: “They are a good side and it’ll be another tough game.
“Things were raw for us on Monday night, but we have to dust ourselves down and go again.
"There’s still a lot of football to be played and it’s important we get back on the horse.”
- Friday night's game between Larne and Cliftonville at Inver Park has a 7.45pm kick-off.
