National cups are something special for many teams and supporters. Today's match will decide whether it's Cliftonville or Ballymena United that keep their silverware dream alive.
It’s busy days for these teams as both were in action only a few days ago. There’s no rest for the wicked, or in this case; no rest for Cliftonville and Ballymena United.
2-1-3 (wins/draws/losses). These are the numbers for Ballymena United when playing away games on artifical turf, which is not the surface they have on their own home stadium (which has grass). Their goal statistics from those six matches are 10-7 (scored/conceded).
Cliftonville form and stats
Last season, Cliftonville's Irish League Cup journey ended in the quarter-finals.Cliftonville have been very solid at home in the Premiership so far, with 27 points collected from 9 matches (9-0-0). This has contributed greatly to their 2nd position in the table. On the other hand, in the Irish League Cup, Cliftonville has performed like this (both home and away): 3 wins, 0 draws and 0 losses. In general it's been a long time since Cliftonville tasted defeat here at Solitude, as they have taken at least one point from their last ten home games in the league.
Cliftonville drew their last game, 1-1 away at Portadown.
Before that, Cliftonville had a Premiership home game versus Ballymena United which ended with a victory 1-0.Some members of the home team might already be thinking of their next match, the Premiership game versus Carrick Rangers in only four days. This game is also played here at Solitude.
With an average of more than two goals per home game in the league (18 in 9 games), Cliftonville's attacking play is working. Cliftonville have showed great defending skills in these home games, allowing the opposition to score only 4 goals.
Ballymena United form and stats
They also participated in Irish League Cup last season. This ended in the quarter-finals.The hunting on away grounds haven’t been very fruitful for Ballymena United so far with only 9 points returning home. The records show 3-0-6 (win-draw-lose). The mentioned statistics is only from the league, looking at the Irish League Cup stats, they have 3 wins, 0 draws and 0 losses both home and away.
Impressive finishing from McElroy and Keeley secured the home win 2-1 against Larne in their previous game.
A 0-1 defeat away at Cliftonville before that.There might be some complaints about the fixture list from the Ballymena United manager Jeffrey as the team has another away game coming up in only four days, this time against Dungannon Swifts.
The visitors have scored 7 goals from 9 away games in the league, an average of less than one per game. As for defending, Ballymena rarely keep clean sheets as they have conceded 17 goals from these away matches.
Head 2 Head
H2H stats regardless of arena (last ten matches): Cliftonville three wins, three draws and Ballymena United four victories. As for goals, four matches ended with three or more goals (over 2,5), six games had two or less.Top Goalscorers
  J. Gormley 8 goals | R. Curran 6 goals |  P. McElroy 4 goals |
Cliftonville missing players
Ballymena United missing players
| Cliftonville | Ballymena United | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 13 | Played | P | 14 | 25 | ||
| 17 | 12 | Won | W | 8 | 15 | ||
| 5 | 0 | Drew | D | 0 | 1 | ||
| 3 | 1 | Lost | L | 6 | 9 | ||
| 45 | 25 | Scored | S | 21 | 41 | ||
| 17 | 6 | Conceded | C | 22 | 35 | ||
| 96% | 100% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 100% | 100% | ||
| 72% | 69% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 71% | 72% | ||
| 52% | 62% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 64% | 60% | ||
| 16% | 8% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 36% | 32% | ||
| 8% | 0% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 29% | 24% | ||
| 52% | 38% | BTTS | BTTS | 50% | 48% | ||
| 40% | 62% | Clean Sheets | C S | 29% | 28% | ||
| 12% | 0% | Failed to Score | F T | 21% | 24% | ||
| 5.7 | 6 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 4.5 | 5.1 | ||
| 2.7 | 2 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 7.3 | 5.6 | ||
| 0.6 | 0.8 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 0 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 1 | 2 | ||
| 9.1 | 11.1 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 6.5 | 8.2 | ||
| 4.3 | 5.2 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 2.7 | 3.5 | ||
| 41% | 38% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 37% | 41% | ||
| 7 | 5.3 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 10.2 | 9.8 | ||
| 2.6 | 1.8 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 4.6 | 4.6 | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Cliftonville | 18 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 29 | 13 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 11 | 9 | 16 | 38 |
| 2 | Linfield | 17 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 31 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 16 | 6 | 22 | 36 |
| 3 | Glentoran | 17 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 35 | 18 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 20 | 13 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 5 | 17 | 36 |
| 4 | Larne | 18 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 33 | 21 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 17 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 32 |
| 5 | Crusaders | 17 | 10 | 1 | 6 | 26 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 8 | 13 | 31 |
| 6 | Coleraine | 17 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 29 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 16 | 10 | 16 | 29 |
| 7 | Glenavon | 17 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 23 | 21 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 16 | 8 | 2 | 22 |
| 8 | Ballymena United | 17 | 7 | 1 | 9 | 17 | 27 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 17 | -10 | 22 |
| 9 | Carrick Rangers | 18 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 14 | 27 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 15 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 12 | -13 | 18 |
| 10 | Dungannon Swifts | 17 | 4 | 0 | 13 | 22 | 46 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 11 | 21 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 11 | 25 | -24 | 12 |
| 11 | Portadown | 18 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 19 | 41 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 11 | 17 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 24 | -22 | 9 |
| 12 | Warrenpoint Town | 17 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 14 | 43 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 10 | 29 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 14 | -29 | 7 |