One-hit squanders

Barry Gray bemoaned Cliftonville’s lack of cutting edge in yesterday’s draw with Dungannon Swifts.

After squandering a series of promising openings that saw Chris Curran hit the bar, Conor McMenamin denied by the home keeper and a string of opportunities that fell for both Joe Gormley and Jay Donnelly, the Reds were grateful to Donnelly for the 88th minute strike that cancelled out the Swifts’ advantage.

Despite carving out so many chances, Gray felt Cliftonville were fortunate to emerge with a point and has called for significant improvement.

“We are three weeks in now and we’ve been frustrated every week, it’s been a very on-off start,” he said.

“Dungannon showed they were hungry for it and we gifted them the goal and had no real cutting edge. We didn’t punish them when we had the chances to.

“Some weeks, things won’t go your way – you won’t hit every ball the way you want to, individually and collectively as a team. But you’ve got to work harder. You’ve got to make it happen. You can’t just feel sorry for yourself and let it go that way.

“Right up until the dying minutes, we really didn’t turn the final screw.”