Cliftonville have to take care of business against Glenavon tomorrow despite having the Irish Cup Final next month to prepare for, says striker Ryan Curran.
The reigning cup holders take on the Lurgan Blues at Solitude hoping to clinch seventh place in the Sports Direct Premiership.
That seventh spot could secure a berth in the European play-offs at the end of the season, should the Reds lose to Dungannon Swifts in the final on May 3.
Cliftonville hold a five point lead over Portadown in eighth place with two games to play and are in red hot form.
Jim Magilton’s team has won their last four games in a row, scoring fourteen goals and conceding only one goal.
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Curran has been amongst the goals of late, scoring four goals in his last five games.
By contrast, Glenavon have won only one game in their last nine and have not won in their last six games.
Nevertheless, Paddy McLaughlin’s side are a clear and present danger, according to Curran.
“It’s a difficult game for us and part of that is the fact that it’s a former manager coming back to Solitude”, said the 31-year-old from Derry.
“Not only is Paddy coming back but (assistant manager) Marty McAnn was a coach here and (coach) Colin Coates obviously played here.
“Our performances this season haven’t always been great, it’s more of a cup season for us, but we’re in a good run of form at the minute.
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“I don’t know what their injuries are like but Glenavon seem to have tailed off a bit after securing their top flight status under Paddy.
“If results go our way we could qualify for the play-offs tomorrow and it’s important that we do that at some stage.
“Dungannon have already qualified for the play-offs and we need to finish in seventh as a fallback position if we don’t win the cup.
“It happened in 2018 after Coleraine beat us in the Irish Cup Final (3-1). We qualified for the Europa League through the play-offs to play Nordsjaelland.
“Yes, we all know how big the cup final is and it’s always in the back of your mind, but we have to be focused on getting three points tomorrow.”
Curran has scored eleven goals this season, ten fewer than Solitude goalscoring legend Joe Gormley.
The former Mallards man says he is happy with his haul bearing in mind he was returning from a serious groin injury, and has nothing but praise for his senior strike partner.
“Joe’s Joe. He’ll score goals as long as he plays, no matter what level it might be, he’s had an unreal season.
“We lost a serious amount of goals last year with Ronan Hale, Ben Wilson and Sam Ashford leaving the club.
“Joe has stepped up and done the business. He didn’t play as much last season but no-one I know wrote him off because he’s 35 now.
“I didn’t expect to get a double digit return this season, I think it’s my lowest return since the Covid season.
“This season was all about getting back playing and I’m really happy to have done that.”