Travel slickness

Jim Magilton says Cliftonville demonstrated all the traits required to emerge from the Loughview Leisure Arena with three points following his side’s 3-0 victory over Carrick Rangers yesterday.

Rory Hale handed the Reds a half-time advantage and, after brother Ronan made it 2-0, Stephen Mallon wrapped things up with a late security strike as Magilton’s men clocked up an impressive win on the road.

“When you give them encouragement, it’s a very difficult place to come,” said Magilton of Carrick’s home form.

“They’ve shown that and they’ve had great results here so we mentioned before the game that it was important for us to get off to a good start – and then they force a succession of corners and set pieces which we had to defend.

“We played really well off the second ball which was important and we had to show our quality off that. We scored at the right time with three really good counter-attack goals. They were pressing late on and we were aware that if we could get that first pass away, it was important and we had to be clinical.

“To be hyper-critical, we probably could have done that a bit better but 3-0 with three real quality goals is a great result.”

Given that footballers are often creatures of habit and routine, especially while preparing for a match, Magilton was pleased that the novelty of the unusual kick-off time did not distract his players from the task at hand.

“Two o’clock on a Sunday was a bit of a strange one for us and we knew we had to be mentally ready, and I thought we were,” he added.

“We applied ourselves fantastically well at a notoriously difficult ground to come to, so to win 3-0 here is a massive result for us and another statement from the players that they have the character to come to these places and win.”