Fronting up

Barry Gray was once again left singing the praises of front pair Joe Gormley and Rory Donnelly after Cliftonville maintained their fine form with last night’s defeat of Ballymena United.

Ahead through Gormley early on, the Reds doubled their advantage when Donnelly pounced just minutes after the hosts had been reduced to 10 men and the same player completed the scoring with a late strike that confirmed consecutive 3-0 wins in the Danske Bank Premiership.

“That’s six wins out of seven now and, again, full credit to the players for what they did and what they’ve been doing over the last number of weeks,” says Gray.

“It was a tough night and we had to really dig in from the start, so to score three goals and keep a clean sheet is very pleasing.

“You need your players at the top end of the park scoring goals and it’s been great to see Joe and Rory doing that again. Their partnership has been flourishing recently and this was another example of that.

“They thrive on scoring goals and can be impossible to stop once they get going, so it’s pleasing to see them in that sort of form and getting better playing alongside eachother all the time.”