Insult to injury-time

Larne 1-0 Cliftonville

Injuries and injury-time conspired to send Cliftonville to more away day misery as Larne banked a 95th minute winner in this afternoon’s Danske Bank Premiership encounter at Inver Park.

Down in numbers going into the game, the Reds saw Conor McDermott hobble off early in the second-half to be replaced by Aaron Donnelly, whose own comeback from a recent injury problem did not last long before he, too, was forced to retire.

Even so, Cliftonville – who had a Joe Gormley effort ruled out for offside and saw Ryan Curran blast a fierce drive at Conor Devlin – looked to have done enough to earn a battling point thanks to a combination of good goalkeeping from Richard Brush, a disciplined display from a chopped-and-changed backline and a little sprinkling of luck; which came into particular effect when Martin Donnelly saw a first-half effort come back off the inside of the post before landing in Brush’s grateful grasp.

Deep into injury-time, however, the hosts won a corner from which Josh Robinson powered home a decisive header to condemn the Reds to a third straight defeat on their travels this term.

Cliftonville: Brush, McDermott (Donnelly, 60 mins (Foster, 72 mins)), Breen, O’Reilly, C Curran, R Curran, McCrudden (O’Connor, 74 mins), McMenamin, Doherty, Gormley, Maguire. Unused subs: Dunne, McKee, Casey, Scannell.