Cliftonville 2 Linfield 4

IPL Matchday 24, Saturday 22nd January 2011, Solitude

Scorers: Lowry, Thompson 2, Kane
Attendance: 1737 (575 Bluemen)

Match highlights (BBC)

Match report and photos (Analogue Boy, ie ABIADW)

A great win, long overdue up there, about time we won on a 3G pitch and which puts us 11 clear, what with the Glens match being postponed. Although judging by this picture, maybe ours should have been abandoned too.



Table:

1 Linfield 24 52
2 Glentoran 23 41
3 Cliftonville 24 40

Cliftonville 3 Linfield 1

IPL Matchday 20, Friday 10th December 2010, Solitude

Scorer: A. Burns
Attendance: 1466 (463 Bluemen)

Match highlights (UTV)

Another big game away from home, another case of Linfield bottling it. Not good enough, time for our players to grow a set. Big three games coming up.

Glens scrape a 1-0 at DC to cut the lead to 2 points.

Table:

1 Linfield 20 43
2 Glentoran 20 41

Linfield 0 Cliftonville 0

IPL Matchday 7, 11/9/10

Attendance: 2474


Blues 0 Reds 0

Table

1 Glentoran 7 19
2 Distillery 7 13
3 Crusaders 6 12
4 Glenavon 7 12
5 Cliftonville 6 11
6 Linfield 6 11

Linfield 2 Cliftonville 0

CAS Quarter Final, Windsor, 7th September 2010

Scorers: Allen 2
Attendance: ca. 800


Match Highlights

FLAT

18.04.09 Linfield 2 Cliftonville 2

The clip doesn't even show Carvill hitting the post and Curran blazing over from 6 yards in injury time. But we didn't deserve to win, it was all so flat, from fans and players, meaning we fail to capitalise on the Glens drawing 3-3 at home to the Whites. That was our last chance, I fear.

1 Glentoran 36 75
2 Linfield 36 74

Irish Cup Semi 4/4/09

Linfield 0 Cliftonville 0

Yawn.

What a Christmas Period!

What a difference 2 weeks make. 3 wins, top of the league, some battling performances despite big injury problems, and our Management Committee coming out with a great statement in response to Glentoran deflection and oneupsmanship. 2009 has started out very nicely indeed. Lucky mascot Hancot inspires the comeback! For the record:

26.12. IPL Linfield 3 Glentoran 0


Glentoran fans rioting

Deco Curran's wonder goal on loop (he doesn't score very often!)


01.01.09 IPL Linfield 1 Ballymena 0

03.01.09 Cliftonville 1 Linfield 2

Linfield 1 Cliftonville 2

CAS Final

Apparently we were appalling. Jeffrey must be on borrowed time.

Match highlights here (how that goal was disallowed, I'll never know).

The game, however, will be forever remembered, across the world thanks to BBC and Sky Sports, for a firework fired by scumbag Reds fans hitting Linfield player Conor Hagan as he was lying on the ground right after the final whistle. Linfield fans were rightly livid, and as usual, our MC sit on their hands and do FA. Now if the shoe had been on the other foot...

Scum firework hits Linfield player

This is going to be a long, long season...

Cliftonville 0 Linfield 4

Well I didn't see that coming. Our first Sky TV win, and how.

Our first half performance was awesome, i could tell right from the off that we were up for it and wanted it more; it helped that Climville, as predicted, were pure muck.

Top performers? I think I love Carvill. Curran was excellent, I'll lay off the slaggings till I see him next. Munster was hungry and sharp. Garrett battled for everything, I thought he was going to walk 1st half, but he kept at it. Noel held it all together well. Thought Harkness did rightly, O'Kane and Winkie (save one shocking 'backpass' at the end) were ok. Spike wasn't really at it, but battled.

My only fear (negative fugger that I am) is that DJ thinks the 4 results were just a big blip, and that he's still the daddy. Encouraging as it was that he brought Spike and Noel off relatively, he'll still stick with them, justified by this result, much as I'd like to see Munster and Carvill up front.

However, I was (to quote DJ) proud of my team tonight. The most uplifting 45 minutes in a long, long time. Cliftonville are a poor side with some unpleasant individuals, none of whom did anything apart from try to kick the shit out of us. How that classless oik McMullan stayed on the pitch, I'll never know.

Slap it up you Chokenville!


DJ interview (slightly worrying he picked out the old guard for praise when 3 new boys were our best by a mile)

Oh, and the reason Linfield failed to sell out their allocation for this game yet again is that many fans are fed up with the double standards applied to us in order for us to attend this fixture, 10 years after going back to Solitude, it's a nightmare to get hold of a ticket, fans have to get to a nearby leisure centre car park one and a half hours before kick-off to travel 5 minutes down a road, there's not been a hint of trouble since we've been back and we're the only set of fans who have to go through this. Of my crowd of 8 who are all season ticket holders, only 1 went. I'd have given it a miss too.

Cliftonville 1 Linfield 2

So Linfield march on to their third Irish Cup final in a row, where they will face Coleraine. Apparently we were comfortable, finally breaking our Reds hoodoo, 4000 at it, here's the thoughts of EBB:

EBB:

Great first half performance, followed by a dogged second half display

We more than deserved to win on Saturday, against a side that simply couldn't cope with us

Subs were still a bit baffling, as Stewart should never have been taken off as he was causing with pace and direct running at the defence.

For Cliftonville supposedly having the best midfielder in the league *chuckles* he was made to look like the average player he is, by both Mulgrew and Gault. The two of them were totally dominant and also provided us with good options going forward. Jamie fully deserving the MOM award.

Tino had 1 save to make the whole game, when Scannell really should have scored

Thompson was awesome as well, mind you... The amount of times he won balls that he should have got nowhere near is incredible. Doing the work of two men, he gave the entire Cliftonville back four a nightmare of a day.

More of the same for the rest of the season please, Blues :)

Irish Cup Semi-Final Draw

Cliftonville vs Linfield, The Oval, 29th March 2008
(Coleraine vs Donegal Celtic, Ballymena, same day)

Really didn't expcet this draw. Irish Cup draws in the past have been notoriously rigged to keep the two strongest teams/clubs apart with a view to getting the biggest possible final (I'll put a video up later of a previous semi draw if I can be bothered) and a part of me believes the IFA messed up! But this draw is tasty, and troublesome, for all sorts of reasons:

1. Rangers vs Celtic is on the same day
2. Reds and Blues fans would normally take the same route through the city centre to the Oval
3. Linfield fans are going to be accommodated in the home end, which could be interesting seeing as many East Belfast Glenmen, beered up after the Rangers match, will have nothing better to do than to scrap with Bluemen
4. By all accounts, Reds fans are going to have to meet at Solitude and be bussed to the game, an arrangement I'm sure they'll be delighted with. Not. Welcome to our world.

Linfield did play Cliftonville once previously at the Oval since 'the end of the Troubles', in 2004 in a CAS semi, with us in the home end and Reds fans in the City end, but it was a freezing midweek game with few fans there. This fixture has a potential for trouble, I can see a very early kick-off, possibly coinciding with the Old Firm game, which will have a very negative effect on the crowd.

I'm disappointed with the draw, I wanted to play them in the final, I'm not home till a week after so I'll miss the game, and Eddie Patterson seems to have the Indian sign over DJ. However, we do seem to play better at the Hovel (Boxing Day excepted) and we have to beat them sometime.

Bring it on!

Cliftonville 2 Linfield 2

Irish Premier League

Solitude, Monday 24th September 2007

Linfield: Mannus, Ervin, McShane, Gault, Lindsay, Mulgrew, McAreavey (O'Kane 90), Dickson (Mouncey 52), Ferguson, Stewart, Bailie. Subs not used : Douglas, Murphy, McCann

Goalscorers: Ferguson (57), Stewart (72)

The author managed to become an Exile for this game, the IPL's first ever live on Sky Sports, once more despite having a ticket by 'misplacing' his passport and thus missing his flight on the morning of the game :cry: So it was a friendly Irish pub in the centre of Berlin for me (I was the only one watching)...

Here's my thoughts:

Watching it on TV on your own, away from your sphere of influence, certainly seems to have an effect on your perception of the game.

I thought Spike was one of our better players, but agree with DGIG as I said on Sunday, we still relied on the hoofball FAR too much, and unless DJ changes the way he thinks about things like tactics, we're in big trouble once Spike goes.

I thought Gault was terrible, I texted Bluenose at HT with the phrase 'Gault is not a footballer', his passing is simply atrocious, and I swore I saw him knock the ball too far once last night so he he could tackle it to his fellow player, his best pass, I felt.

Maccers was decent, he's still the only one to put the foot on the ball and (at least try to) pick out a through ball and pass, contrast Cliftonville's passing cutting us open at will in the 1st half, with our laboured efforts.

Dicko is way off the boil. McShane had a shocking first half, a bit better in the second, but his set pieces and play were terrible, what must O'Kane be thinking?

And Noel... was poor. As with O'Kane, Winkie must be scratching his head.

Liked the look of Tommy up front, both our goals were well-worked. I was disappointed we didn't win as well. Their first? Mannus maybe at fault, but it was a wicked inswinger, a cracking free-kick. And I wouldn't blame Mannus for the 2nd, their sub came on and no-one seemed to notice him or pick him up.

I thought it was a great advert for the IL. Can't comment on the singing though, only Oirish/ folk music in Berlin for me.

Highlights here: