After their Irish Cup humiliation against Limavady, Linfield have since played four and won four, scoring 14 goals and conceding one.
Linfield manager David Healy knows his squad have what it takes to go to war for the Irish Premiership title.
After beating arch rivals Glentoran at Windsor Park on Saturday night, the Blues boss insisted his men have the belief now to push on for glory.
Healy knows most of his side have been there and done that. Indeed, the former Northern Ireland striker says that winning mentality has to be there from day one for all Linfield players.
“You have to have a champion mentality to sign for Linfield, be at Linfield for the length of time that some of these players have been and try and maintain success because the demands have been set for 140 years,” said Healy.
After their Irish Cup humiliation against Limavady, Linfield have since played four and won four, scoring 14 goals and conceding one. The Blues are now five points behind league leaders Larne who have only picked up one point from a possible nine of late.
“I said in the press about it being unlikely but not impossible, and it’s not,” Healy insisted. “We were written off a number of weeks ago and probably rightly so. With the level of performance we put in away to Limavady in the cup. Our league form has been good from the turn of the year.
“The table looks a little bit better, the players have more belief now. We’ve got to buy into the end of the season drive, where we’ve been before. We’ve been in the trenches, we understand what it takes.
“That’s why it’s important for me at times, amongst the chaos, amongst the noise, amongst the criticism, to try and remain as calm as I need to be. Because if not, then it gets out of hand and into players’ performance levels.
“I’m pleased for the players, they took a bit of a battering, they’ve responded well. We now have basically 10 cup finals coming up – nine league games and the cup final against Cliftonville.”
Matt Fitzpatrick was the matchwinner at Windsor on Saturday night. His poacher’s finish for his 17th goal of the season sealed a huge three points and it was nothing less than he deserved, said the manager.
“Fitzy’s popped up. His performance tonight was phenomenal, leading the line the way he does. He deserves that goal.
“I don’t think it was a great game but we found a way,” said Healy. “I thought second half, we were better.”
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