BLUES MUST BOUNCE BACK

The boss is all too wary of a fall from grace just like last season when the Blues tumbled from table toppers to bottom half strugglers in a few short months.

Quinn says his side simply must avoid going on a losing streak but with Crusaders away this Saturday (kick-off 3pm) to be followed by Linfield at home in the league, that won’t be easy.

The Blues travel to Seaview to face a Crues side who sit just three points behind them with a game in hand, albeit against champions Linfield. However after running Glentoran so close last weekend, Quinn is confident that his side can pick up all three points come Saturday afternoon and make up for last season’s shambolic display in this fixture.

“It’s very important that we get something out of the game,” he began.

“Massively important. We can’t afford to have two defeats on the trot or anything like that. We’ve got to get that out of our system and bounce back again.

“Hopefully we can continue in the same vein that we have been in. The emphasis in training will be on getting the ball down and passing it about. Hopefully we can continue where we left off with that on Saturday.

“We would need to give a better account of ourselves than the last time we went to Seaview. We got beaten 3-0 in the game live on Sky Sports and it was a very poor performance. We’ll be out to redeem ourselves and try and get a result on the day. We’ll be going there to have a go and to try and win the game.”

Quinn changed his side to a defensive 4-5-1 formation last Saturday but will be reverting to his favoured 4-4-2 this weekend with the dropped Mark Miskimmin and Ryan Harpur both possibly in line for a return to the starting eleven.

“It’ll be back to 4-4-2 on Saturday,” he said.

“Ryan Harpur and Mark Miskimmin dropped out of the line-up last Saturday but there’s a possibility that one or two of the players will come back into the team again.”

Seaview, of course, houses a synthetic pitch that was last season the cause of much debate but Quinn is confident that it won’t be as big a factor this time round after it was relaid in the summer:

“It’s better than it was last year. It’s been relaid and it’s playing a lot better. I was down at it a few weeks ago and it didn’t look too bad.

“We were trying to get a practice match on a similar pitch in Moyola this week. However, there have been a few problems there where the manager has resigned and the players are on a boycott as well so that game’s been called off.

“At this moment in time, Eddie Drury’s trying to sort something out with Clan na Gael over the use of their pitch instead.”