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Aaron’s crossed words

The length of time it takes Aaron Donnelly to clarify whether his weekend goal against Glenavon was deliberate probably answers the question – but there’s no doubting his delight at seeing a training ground manoeuvre pay off.

The 20-year-old defender opened the scoring in Cliftonville’s 2-1 victory with a high swirling effort after exchanging passes with Rory Hale from a short corner and, quizzed on whether it was a shot or a cross, he offers a considered pause before replying: “I’ll say it’s a shot.

“We’ve been working on it in training. Paddy’s said to put it into an area where, if the lads don’t get on the end of it, it’s going to work the keeper, so I just tried to put it in for one of the lads to flick on and, if not, hopefully it goes in and thankfully it did.”

Having seen Daniel Kearns go close with a similar delivery that was turned against the crossbar just minutes earlier, Donnelly was pleased to see the team get it right at the second time of asking but admits he was disappointed Cliftonville didn’t go on to enjoy a more comfortable afternoon in the aftermath of Ryan Curran doubling the hosts’ advantage before half-time.

“We caught them out pretty early,” he adds. “Daniel nearly scored but the keeper made a great save, so we just tried it again and it came off.

“We wanted to get the next goal to try and kill the game because 2-0 is still a tough scoreline, but they got the third goal and the momentum changed. In the end, we held on for a good three points but we probably could have done a bit better in the second-half.”

As one of a host of players whose season has been disrupted by injury, Donnelly has been a mainstay in the side since late November and says that, while the defence in particular has faced numerical challenges, anyone who has come in has continued to give their all.

“The team has gone through some bad injuries and it’s come in the backline most of the time, but anyone who’s come in has been playing really well and doing the job,” he concludes. “I’m just happy I’m playing at the end of the day.”