David Healy makes transfer admission as Linfield march on in Europe

Linfield set for financial windfall as they progress to the third qualifying round of the Conference League

Linfield took a massive step forward in their dream to reach the group stages of European competition with a convincing 2-0 win over FK Žalgiris on Thursday evening.

First half goals from Matthew Fitzpatrick and Kieran Offord sent the Blues into the third qualifying round of the Conference League, where they meet Faroese side Vikingur.

It also boosted Linfield’s finances to over £600,000 with David Healy admitting they may dip into the transfer market once more with only four games standing between them and a group stage place, but only if it’s right for the club.

“The chairman and the board have backed me incredibly over my time here,” said the Blues boss. “There’s probably never been a time where I haven’t had that support in terms of financial help.

“I’ve been on record to say in the upcoming seasons there’s going to be the new legislation and laws coming in and we will certainly be a club leading from the front with that making sure we’re doing things right and if other clubs aren’t then we will find out further down the line.

“If there’s a couple of pound, we are looking, we’ll continue. Even if we had no money myself and Willie McKeown are at games, down south, taking calls off agents about possibilities.

“We’re not going to jump into anything because we want to make sure we secure the long-term future of the club.”

A rare missed penalty from Chris Shields failed to knock Linfield off their stride as they produced a professional display against their Lithuanian opponents with one player in particular earning special praise from the manager afterwards.

“Jamie Mulgrew is a class act,” said Healy. “I think he was running to about 70 minutes and the rest he does what Jamie does!

“I thought his performance levels…and there were others here tonight.

“I don’t think our goalkeeper had too much to do, maybe there were a couple of scary moments, but overall we dealt with it well.

“At the other end, their goalkeeper made an outstanding save from Fitzy’s header which would have eased us over the line.

“You always fear in Europe with good players after 75 or 80 minutes that it only takes one mistake, one bit of quality from the opposition and you’re on the back foot, but we didn’t allow them to do that.”