A poor Show

Ballymena United 4-1 Cliftonville

Cliftonville suffered a heavy defeat to Ballymena United on an afternoon to forget at The Showgrounds.

Trailing to Davy McDaid’s opener at half-time, the Reds fell further behind in a disastrous start to the second period that saw Kym Nelson and Josh Kelly net quickfore efforts to extend the hosts’ advantage to three.

An eye-catching Ronan Hale strike both reduced the deficit and sparked something of a Cliftonville rally, but any lingering hopes of an unlikely fightback were extinguished when McDaid claimed his second in the closing stages.

Despite getting off to a reasonable start, Cliftonville slowly but surely saw their threat extinguished and fell behind when McDaid showed close control and neat feet to stroke United in front nine minutes before the interval.

Nelson slammed in the second shortly after the turnaround and when Kelly further boosted the Sky Blues’ lead, the Reds’ race looked to have been run.

The team hit back thereafter, however, and were rewarded when Hale found the top corner – and suddenly there was a sense that the day’s next goal could prove decisive.

That, indeed, is precisely how it turned out but not in Cliftonville’s favour when a miscued goal kick from Nathan Gartside fell for Ryan Waide, who slipped McDaid in to wrap things up.

Cliftonville: Gartside, Addis, Gallagher (C Curran, 70 mins), Rory Hale (McDonagh, 56 mins), R Curran, Lowe, Robinson, Doherty (Casey, 70 mins), Gormley, Turner (Moore, 56 mins), Ronan Hale. Unused subs: Donnelly, Storey, Coates.