Coiled and calm

Paddy McLaughlin was pleased with the composure Cliftonville showed after falling behind against Carrick Rangers yesterday.

Despite getting off to a dream start when Ronan Hale opened the scoring after just 7.92 seconds, the Reds were stunned to concede two quickfire goals that left them trailing at the interval, but McLaughlin insists the setback didn’t alter his half-time team-talk.

“The message at 1-0 up was going to be to keep dominating the ball and be more clinical with our chances – that didn’t change at 2-1 down,” he explained.

“We’d played very well in the first-half but the big thing was we didn’t put our chances away. We had a lot of opportunities soon after the early goal that could have put us in a position to really kill the game off and when you don’t take them, you can be punished and that’s what happened.

“It’s not like we lost control of the game or anything. We didn’t stop playing, it was two goals against the run of play that I don’t think anybody really saw coming but that’s what can happen in football and it was a reminder about how important those missed chances had been.

“There was no need for any roaring or shouting at half-time. The players were very calm and composed and believed in what they were doing. Fair play to them, they responded well to going behind and got their reward in the end.”

Mark Surgenor’s foul on Luke Turner allowed Ryan Curran to level from the penalty spot and, after Surgenor had been sent off for a foul on Stephen Mallon, substitute Joe Gormley poked home the winner less than minute after being introduced from the bench.

McLaughlin would not, however, take any of the acclaim for the striker’s timely introduction and also passed on credit for the kick-off move that delivered Hale’s rapid breakthrough.

“The boys stay behind in training and they work on their own thing,” he said.

“Fair play to them, they’ve come up with a bit of brilliance there. I don’t think anybody in the ground knew what was happening except the boys involved. It was a great bit of imagination and it’s got us a goal.”

On Gormley’s impact, he added: “When you’re bringing Joe on, you just tell him to go and do what he does – and he does it.

“There’s no great managerial thinking behind it or anything. It’s pretty straightforward. You tell Joe to go on and score a goal and Joe goes on and scores a goal. Nothing to do with me.”