Pride out the storm

Declan O’Hara spoke of his pride after guiding Cliftonville past Coleraine in last night’s European Play-Off semi-final.

Ryan Curran and Ronan Doherty had the Reds in apparent control at Solitude only for the Bannsiders to reduce the arrears with just under 20 minutes remaining but, following a nail-biting conclusion, it was the home side who booked their place in Saturday’s decisive showdown with Glentoran at The Oval.

“At 2-0 up, we knew Coleraine were going to come at us because they’re a good side,” reflected O’Hara.

“At the final whistle, I was delighted for the boys because they’ve put so much work into that game.

“Over the last 10 days, we’ve done a lot on the training ground and they did what we asked of them. Our energy levels and our busy-ness on and off the ball was different class.

“I’m delighted for the players because we’ve been on a bad run. Six weeks ago, we were challenging and we hit a blip, but we knew tonight we had to be up for this one and we were.

“The Play-Offs are more or less a cup competition and semi-finals are all about winning. The main thing is we’ve another training session to come and we’ll be back on Saturday for another game.

“My boys were excellent, I just can’t praise them enough. I’m so proud of them – they dug deep and they stuck together.”