Winning Ron

Cliftonville 1-0 Dungannon Swifts

Ronan Doherty struck the only goal of the game as Cliftonville got the better of Dungannon Swifts in this evening’s pre-season friendly fixture at Solitude.

Both sides produced some eye-catching football on a night that saw the Reds carve out the lion’s share of goal chances, with the first-half especially seeing the hosts go close to breaking the deadlock on a number of occasions.

Ryan Curran, Jamie McDonagh, Rory Hale and Chris Gallagher were all denied by a combination of good goalkeeping or last-ditch defending, while McDonagh in particular was unlucky to see a fierce blast whistle across the face of goal and inches wide.

Dungannon came into the game more in the second-half and, on a surface slickened by seasonal downpour, Cliftonville goalkeeper Luke McNicholas – making the first appearance of his spell on loan from Sligo Rovers – demonstrated good handling when called upon to scoop up a couple of testing shots.

It was at the other end, however, where the majority of action took place, with McDonagh and Curran again sending attempts wide of the mark before Doherty was unlucky to see a hooked effort creep just past the post.

The deadlock was eventually broken when Doherty raced through to provide the finishing touch to a team move that had started with a trialist in defence playing possession forward and culminated in Rory Hale splitting the Swifts backline with an inch-perfect pass.

Doherty would go close to doubling his personal tally with another low effort soon later, while the nearest either side came to affecting the scoresheet was a close-range Calvin McCurry header that the substitute was unable to steer beneath the crossbar.

Cliftonville: McNicholas, Ives (McGuinness), Harney (Addis), C Curran (Casey), Hale, R Curran (McCurry), McDonagh, Doherty, Gallagher, Kearns (Foster), Trialist. Unused subs: Dunne, Davidson, Scannell, Morgan, D Breen.