Irish Premiership: Blues boss Healy insists title race 'isn't done and dusted' after Glenavon defeat
Last updated on .From the section Irish
Linfield boss David Healy says "things aren't done and dusted" after his side lost to Glenavon to give the chasing pack hope heading into the final weeks of the Irish Premiership season.
The Blues remain seven points clear of Glentoran after suffering a 3-2 defeat at Mourneview Park.
Linfield travel to Glens in the first post-split game and Healy admits there may be further twists and turns.
"We're fortunate to be at the top of the table," said Healy.
"But I'm aware and the players will certainly be made aware that trophies aren't handed out until things are done and dusted, and they're not done and dusted yet.
"There will be a lot of twists and turns I would imagine so we have to make sure we're better than we were against Glenavon."
Victory at Mournview would have opened a 10-point advantage for Linfield with five games remaining, but they were edged out by a fire-up Lurgan Blues outfit in an enthralling encounter.
Colin Coates headed the home side into an early lead, and while Shayne Lavery quickly levelled for the Blues, Matthew Fitzpatrick restored Glenavon's advantage after 28 minutes before Daniel Purkis added a decisive third on 61.
Christy Manzinga pulled one back for Linfield, who Healy admits were "surprisingly poor" in a game in which they struggled to deal with the energy and pressing of Glenavon's forward players.
"Sometimes you have to hold your hands up and give credit to the opposition, we found it difficult to play against them," added Healy, who is chasing a fourth Gibson Cup in five years at the Linfield helm.
"We conceded a soft first goal, got ourselves back into it with probably a soft equaliser and then we give away a really poor second goal. From then, you're always chasing tails, especially against Glenavon, who force you into making mistakes and we made too many mistakes today.
"They play in a certain way that gets the best out of their forward players and we were found wanting a bit on that."
Coates headed Glenavon in front early on during an absorbing first half in Lurgan as the centre-half marked his 600th appearance in local football in style.
Lavery drew the Blues level five minutes later with a header of his own during a chaotic and breathless opening quarter of an hour, only for Fitzpatrick to restore Glenavon's lead just before the half-hour mark.
Fitzpatrick spurned a golden chance to net his second when he fired wide from Campbell's cross after James Singleton had done brilliantly to rob Kirk Millar.
Just two minutes later, however, Glenavon opened up a two-goal cushion thanks to the predatory instincts of Purkis, who made a near-post dash before glancing Singleton's cross beyond Johns.
Glenavon's front two of Purkis and Fitzpatrick were exceptional throughout the game and earned effusive praise from boss Gary Hamilton.
"I thought the front two led the line brilliantly," said Hamilton.
"They caused Linfield problems all day long. When you have a front two that are physical like that, that work their socks off and score goals, it's very difficult to play against."
Glenavon went into Saturday's game with their top-six hopes having been ended by Crusaders' win over Dungannon Swifts.
And while Hamilton admits that was a "downer" in the build-up, he wants his players to fight for seventh place and the European play-offs.
"Winning today puts us six points clear of Ballymena, which is important," said Hamilton.
"There are no easy games and we're going into five more difficult games and we need to get the points on the board to make we get that seventh place - that's our aim."