Change as good as arrest

Barry Gray was pleased that, despite making sweeping changes to his starting line-up, Cliftonville’s professional approach eliminated the possibility of an upset at the hands of PSNI last night.

The Reds, who named just four survivors from the side that started the weekend’s victory over Linfield, made comfortable progress to the Quarter Finals of the League Cup with a 7-0 win that came courtesy of braces from Daniel Hughes, Stephen Garrett and Jay Donnelly as well as an own goal from visiting skipper Scott McCrory – and Gray commended his players for their display.

“I’m just glad to get through the game with no mishaps, slips ups or anything the run of play,” he said.

“Seven goals, a comfortable game and we’re through to the next round of the Cup – job done. It was a professional attitude and professional performance.

“We weren’t at a hundred per cent. In terms of the drive when the score is 7-0, I don’t think you can expect players to be right up there like they were on Saturday. I’m not too worried about that – there were gaps at times, there was sloppiness at times but it tailored out to be something similar to a training game. We can’t be too hard on the players for that, they’ve had a heavy day on Saturday, were in for training on Monday and then delivered another good solid performance against the PSNI, so it’s been a heavy couple of weeks for us.”