Lnfield boss Healy goes in pursuit of more silverware

The Blues won the first silverware of the season last weekend as they defeated Coleraine in the Charity League final at the Oval.

And former Northern Ireland international Healy wants to keep that winning habit going and he has brought in Robbie Garrett, Jordan Stewart, Andy Mitchell and Josh Robinson during the summer to help his side.

“We are unbeaten since January and I want us to go on and be unbeaten until January next year.

“That is the aim. Am I being ambitious? Slightly but that is the confidence I have in the dressing room and the confidence I have in the players.

“It is going to be difficult, teams have brought in new players and managers.

“But that is the aim I have given to the dressing room - to remain unbeaten as long as possible.

“Winning games breeds confidence,” he added.

And Healy was pleased to get his hands on the Charity Shield.

“People can say what they want about this trophy, but it puts it out there that Linfield are still winning and it was the same against Glentoran last weekend.

“I was desperate to win that penalty shoot-out because I want a winning mentality at this club.

“A few of these lads have played at clubs were you don’t always win things - so it is important if you are here that you are totally focused on winning things and the lads were focused.

“Now we can look forward to the league game against Carrick.”

And Linfield winger Paul Smyth is attracting lots of attention from cross channel clubs - but Smyth says he is happy with life at the Belfast club.

“I am totally focused on Linfield and I don’t really care about what’s going on behind the scenes.

“I just want to keep playing well and doing what I have been doing. I am a Linfield player and always will be until something happens.

“But at the minute nothing has happened, so I have to keep playing well and doing my best for Linfield,” he added.

Goals from Smyth, Aaron Burns and Andrew Mitchell sealed the win for the Blues, while Coleraine’s only reply came from Josh Carson.

And Smyth says the encounter was the best preparation for the start of the new league campaign.

“It’s a trophy and we want to win every trophy we go in for this season.

“We started off well and then died off a bit when they got their goal.

“But we regrouped in the second half and came out the winners. David Healy wants us to play tidy football and not play long balls.

“The boss has an idea of the way he wants us to play and we are sticking to that.

“Linfield are a team that always wins trophies and we want to keep that tradition going.

“This was a great work-out and we are ready to start the defence of our league title.

“ The boss has brought in players who are good players and you have to do well.

“You have to fight for your place - but we don’t complain about that - we just keep fighting.

“You just have to keep your head down - work hard in training - and hope you are in the team. We want to kick-on from last season and with the new players on board we have a stronger squad than last year. We will be looking to get our league campaign off to a positive start against Carrick.”