Faith value

Paddy McLaughlin says he always believed that Cliftonville would find a winning goal in yesterday’s Danske Bank Premiership battle with Glenavon.

Though most of the game’s forward momentum was produced by the Reds, they found clear scoring opportunities hard to come by at Mourneview Park, where the closest either side came to breaking the deadlock was a long-range effort that Ryan Curran clipped against the crossbar.

The visitors’ reward came with eight minutes left on the clock when a foul on Curran earned a free-kick which Ronan Hale stepped up to drill into the bottom corner and make it five League wins on the bounce for Cliftonville.

“We are always confident that, with the group of players we have, we will score goals,” said McLaughlin.

“We had some good passages of play and there was a feeling among us in the dugout that a goal was coming.

“Our performance had been lacking a little killer touch or a telling final pass. We knew the chances would come and it took that bit of brilliance from Ronan to win it.

“The boys are in a good place, but we know over the course of the season there will be a lot of bumps along the way. We don’t get too high when we win and don’t get too low in defeat, it’s important we maintain that.”