Brave review

Paddy McLaughlin admitted to frustration in the camp that, despite being far from their best, Cliftonville failed to take full points from last night’s North Belfast Derby.

The Reds struggled to break down a resolute and dogged Crusaders side that battled gamely for a draw but which could, in fact, have won the game were it not for a superb fingertip save from Nathan Gartside turning Jordan Forsythe’s header against the post.

Cliftonville had threatened through Ronan Hale and Jamie McDonagh in the first-half but saw their best chance of a winner come and go with two minutes left when Sean Moore fed fellow substitute Joe Gormley, whose strike was kept out by Jonny Tuffey.

“I’m sure it was a frustrating oul game to watch,” reflected McLaughlin.

“It was frustrating to play in. I thought the first-half was very cagey, both sides cancelled each other out and I just said to the players at half-time that it looks like two sides afraid to lose the game rather than being brave and winning it.

“I think we took that on a wee bit more in the second-half. We were better and created a couple of half-chances and had a great chance at the end to win it when there would have been no coming back.

“I think we tried but, without being at our best, we probably still deserved to win the game but Nathan has made a brilliant save, tipping one on to the post when everybody thought it was in the net. The Crues will have their arguments but I felt, on the balance of play, we were a lot more attack-minded than they were and we tried to win it more than they did but we’ll take our point and move on.”

He added: “We were struggling to create anything clear cut. That’s no blame on the strikers, it was just our forward play as a team. It was a bit cagey and there wasn’t really a lot of commitment put into any attacks, we didn’t overload enough and we didn’t create anything clear cut and when a game’s like that, you do think ‘maybe a couple of subs might liven it up’ but I felt we were always in control and I didn’t want to take away that control.

“When we gained control of the second-half, that was the time to go and try to win it. With that chance and a couple of extra minutes, maybe we might have won it but you can’t fault the players. We just lacked that killer instinct or that final pass that probably would have helped break the deadlock.

“I don’t think there was anybody inside the ground expecting Joe Gormley to pass the ball in a one-on-one with the keeper, not a chance. He hasn’t scored nearly 250 goals for this Club by passing one-on-ones, so there’s no fault in taking on a strike. It was there to be shot at and it was a good save by the keeper. You give the keeper credit, you don’t criticise the striker.

“Sean was brilliant when he came on. I said to the players at half-time that the fans were with us and we needed to give them a spark, give them energy and give them something to get behind. Sean created that buzz around the place when he came on. His ability to go past people and at at people is incredible for such a young boy and, looking back on the game, he was probably the bright spark that gave us that extra push in the final third.”