Order of the day

Jim Magilton declared himself delighted with Cliftonville’s comeback after what we called a “night and day” performance against Glentoran.

The Reds trailed 2-0 at half-time at The Oval thanks to finishes from Aidan Wilson and Bobby Burns, but Ronan Hale’s sizzling strike at the start of the second-half ignited a fightback that finally yielded rewards when Odhran Casey popped up with a header deep into injury-time.

Unimpressed with how his side had performed in the opening 45 minutes, Magilton was thrilled with the intensity of their response to some half-time changes.

“The performance was night and day in terms of first-half, second-half,” he said.

“Massive credit to Glentoran because they were excellent in the first-half, they didn’t give us a breath. We were poor, our passing was poor, ball retention was poor – there were so many things wrong with our first-half performance.

“One thing we’ve always managed to show is courage and we didn’t show enough of that. In the second-half, we changed the shape and we needed to pen them back, which we did. We showed our quality, we started to pass the ball and ask more questions of them. Then Ronan scores an absolutely magnificent goal and we kept going right to the end.

“Odhran Casey’s come up trumps again with a last-ditch header. His courage is just unbelievable.”

As disappointed as he was with Cliftonville’s performance in the first-half, Magilton insisted his side had a perfectly good goal ruled out when an offside flag was raised against Joe Gormley, whose header came back off the post before Hale converted – an incident which sparked memories of Rory Hale’s disallowed injury-time strike in December’s 2-2 draw with the Glens.

“It’s onside, Joe’s onside,” said Magilton. “Funnily enough, it’s the same linesman that gave the same decision at Solitude. That one was onside, Joe’s was onside and I thought it was a really poor decision.”

Following injury-time heroics for a third consecutive away game, the Manager concluded: “I’d like us to score in the first minute if I’m brutally honest!

“What we have to do now is bottle that second-half performance in terms of just sheer guts and determination and a never-say-die attitude. There was more intensity in our play in comparison to the first-half, where a really good side really strangled us and I’m delighted with how we’ve turned it round.”