Belfast Blues bounce right back

Reports of Linfield FC's demise have been greatly exaggerated. The Belfast Blues, Northern Irish football's dominant force, had suffered a largely dreadful October, David Jeffrey's side losing four matches out of five, failing to score in all of those losses.

Final defeat
Two of the defeats came at Linfield's home fortress of Windsor Park, and they lost there again in early November when the international ground hosted the first showpiece of the season, Cliftonville FC prevailing 2-1 in the County Antrim Shield final. That result was all the more shocking as Linfield had thrashed Cliftonville 4-0 in the League eight days earlier.

Shock results
The earth tilted on its axis when Linfield lost those four games in a row, including those two home defeats against Lisburn Distillery FC (0-2) and Dungannon Swifts FC (0-3). Normal service seemed to have resumed with that 4-0 win against the Reds – but then came that Shield final defeat.

Dramatic recovery
However, this week the Blues showed their spirit by earning another chance to fight for one of the three domestic trophies they won last season. That 3-0 home loss to Dungannon was in the first leg of the League Cup third round. Linfield travelled more in hope than expectation to the second leg at Stangmore Park and amazingly progressed to the quarter-finals on away goals, winning 4-1 on the night.

Unheard-of formation
Linfield's trailed 4-2 on aggregate with just a minute of normal time remaining, but Paul Munster gave them hope and then Glenn Ferguson, at the ripe old age of 39, scored with a scissor-kick in the second minute of added time to send the Blues through. A delighted Jeffrey explained that their progress came after he adopted an audacious attacking policy once Dungannon had scored to make it 4-2 on aggregate: "I set the team up with the most adventurous formation ever, a 3-3-4, which I have never played in my life. It was one of those situations where you might as well go for broke."

Still dangerous
Linfield are still afflicted by a host of injuries, but remain the team to beat in Northern Ireland. Despite their two league losses they are still second in the table, only two points behind surprise leaders Crusaders, with two games in hand. Their reward for their stunning success at Stangmore Park is a League Cup quarter-final against Portadown FC, who surprised Cliftonville with a 4-3 second-leg win following a goalless first encounter.