Crusaders will be hoping to bounce back here following a 1-2 Premiership loss in their previous game against Linfield.
The only player to score from Crusaders was Jordan Owens (55\'). Joel Cooper (32\') and Daniel Finlayson (90\') scored for Linfield.
Crusaders haven’t had any problems with scoring, netting in one hundred percent of their last 6 games.
They’ve hit an aggregate of 10 during that period and have conceded a total of 5. That sort of pattern isn’t assured to be sustained here, of course.
Their past results show that Crusaders:
have not registered a win against Cliftonville in their last 5 league games.
are without a win at home for the past 2 league matches.
Since a losing effort in their last game against Larne in Premiership competition, Cliftonville will be aiming to make amends here.
The only scorer from Cliftonville was Ben Wilson (60\'). Aaron Donnelly (19\'), Andy Ryan (40\', 45\', 54\', 74\') and Leroy Millar (72\') scored for Larne.
Showing their partiality to fruitful matches, we’ve had goals 24 times in the prior six matches in which Cliftonville have taken to the pitch, giving a mean average of 4 goals each meeting. Opposing teams have got 14 from this total.
Looking at the pre-match facts, Cliftonville:
have not lost to Crusaders in games played away from home for the previous 2 league games.
are without an away win for the past 2 league matches.
Head to head
A glance at their past head-to-head meetings dating back to 26/12/2022 shows us that Crusaders have won 1 of them & Cliftonville 3, with the number of drawn games being 2.
Loads of goals were seen in those games, too - 22 in total which averages out at 3.67 goals per meeting.
The last league game between these sides was Premiership match day 23 on 26/12/2023 which finished with the scoreline of Cliftonville 2-1 Crusaders.
The referee was Shane Andrews.
Team News: Crusaders
Adam Lecky (Knee injury), Jimmy Callacher (Cruciate ligament tear), Lewis Barr (Knee injury) and Josh Robinson (Cruciate ligament injury) aren’t available for Crusaders manager Stephen Baxter.
Team News: Cliftonville
Out of a mainly healthy group, there is just the one fitness problem for the Cliftonville gaffer Jim Magilton to be concerned with. Ryan Curran (Groin injury) won’t be playing here.
Prediction
Our thinking is that Cliftonville and Crusaders could both find goals hard to come by here.Let’s see what happens, but it could well be that we end up with scores level and two clean sheets. Our tip is therefore for a very even match with a 0-0 scoreline at the end of this game.
