We were clinical: Magilton

Jim Magilton admits Cliftonville were flattered by the scoreline in yesterday’s victory over Dungannon Swifts, but hailed his players for sticking to their task at Stangmore Park.

Trailing to a Matthew Lusty strike at the interval, the Reds turned things around early in the second-half when Joe Gormley and Ronan Hale produced cool finishes ahead of substitute Ben Wilson’s late double putting the seal on the visitors’ comeback.

Magilton acknowledged his side were far from their best but could not fault their attitude.

“The 4-1 scoreline flatters us, there is no question about that,” he said.

“We were clinical, but we have to be better. We can’t give people head starts and play in the manner that we did.

“But we showed terrific character and games like these are about character, when you’re not playing particularly well.”

Magilton revealed that, having fallen behind just before the break, he asked his players to step up every facet of their game for the second period.

“I couldn’t wait for half-time to come,” he added.

“We were outplayed, outthought and outfought for 45 minutes. Dungannon went in deservedly 1-0 up and maybe it could have been more than that.

“We’ve got a fantastic, honest group of players who acknowledged that and we just asked for greater intensity in our play, greater quality in our play – which we’ve shown all season – and we got both.”