Red hot fourm

Cliftonville 6-0 Carrick Rangers

Ronan Hale scored four as Cliftonville swept Carrick Rangers aside in this evening’s League Cup second round tie at Solitude.

After elder brother Rory – hat-trick hero of Saturday’s victory over Newry City – had opened the scoring, Ronan seized upon a Nathan Gartside pass to make it 2-0 courtesy of some individual brilliance from a wide position.

A second-half double secured the matchball with a quarter of an hour remaining but there was still time for Ronan to tee Jamie McDonagh up to make it 5-0 before putting the seal on the night’s scoring himself with a firm finish in the closing minutes.

The first opening of the night came early on when a McDonagh cross was touched into the area by Luke Turner only for Rory Hale to see his close-range effort blocked by goalkeeper Aaron Hogg.

Jim Ervin got his timing right to stop a Ronan Doherty pass setting Ryan Curran in the clear but Cliftonville got the goal they deserved on 19 minutes when Rory Hale was in the right place to stroke into the roof of the net after Kris Lowe had nodded against the post.

Jonny Addis then saw a header cleared off the line and, after Ronan Kalla had lashed wide in Carrick’s search for an equaliser, Lowe thundered a Doherty cross over the top.

There was little sign of what was to come in the build-up to the second goal and, indeed, it actually came from a visitors’ free-kick deep inside the Reds’ half.

David Cushley saw his delivery into the box gathered by goalkeeper Nathan Gartside, who immediately thundered the ball forward and, when Kurtis Forsythe was unable to cut it out, Ronan Hale seized upon possession near the byline, cut inside, skipped past Forsythe and blasted beyond Hogg.

The second period began with Curran miskicking after being set up by Sean Moore before being denied by Hogg, who then gathered a Ronan Hale strike at the second attempt with Curran lurking.

Rory Hale felt Cliftonville should have been awarded a 64th minute penalty when he went down under a challenge from Cameron Stewart but, within a minute, the midfielder had set off on a charge down the right flank and whipped over a cross for his brother to head home.

It was 4-0 soon later when Ronan Hale got in behind the Gers defence and, though he had an unmarked Joe Gormley presenting himself as an option, there was nothing on his mind other then completing his hat-trick and he did the needful with a confident finish.

Within three minutes, the same player had beaten keeper Hogg in a race to Jamie Robinson’s pass and laid the ball back for McDonagh to crash in first-time from the edge of the box.

The sixth and final goal of the night came with three minutes left when Odhran Casey played Ronan Hale into space and he made no mistake with a low drive for his fourth of the night.

Cliftonville: Gartside, Addis (Robinson, 70 mins), Gallagher (Storey, 74 mins), Rory Hale, R Curran (Gormley, 70 mins), McDonagh, Lowe, Doherty (Casey, 74 mins), Turner (Moore, 48 mins), Ronan Hale, Coates. Unused subs: Talley, Traynor.