A spot of relief

Jim Magilton admitted it was a “huge relief” to get past Ards in last night’s County Antrim Shield tie and said that only hard work on the training ground will get Cliftonville back into a more identifiable rhythm.

After a decent first-half display, the Reds huffed and puffed throughout an underwhelming second 45 minutes and, though only a magnificent save prevented Joe Gormley from winning the game in injury-time, it was in a penalty shootout that the hosts ultimately prevailed.

“You have to give Ards credit because they’re coming off the back of two big losses, so I’m sure John (Bailie) would have been questioning character and resilience, which came in spadefuls against us so they deserve a lot of credit for that,” reflected Magilton.

“We gave out some debuts and gave some of the new lads an opportunity to come and play important minutes. I thought we were bright at times in the first-half especially but then struggled a little bit even though we made positive substitutions to try and win the game.

“We made life difficult for ourselves because we didn’t convert chances and were wasteful in the attacking third.”

Cliftonville certainly made life difficult for themselves in the shootout when they were twice on the verge of defeat only to be let off the hook when Ards’ potential matchwinning kicks were blasted over the bar ahead of David Odumosu saving the contest’s 24th penalty to earn a 9-8 success.

“It’s a huge relief,” added Magilton.

“We wanted to be in the next round and that’s where we are – which is one better than last year – but Ards have obviously missed opportunities to win it and David’s made a couple of great saves, but Cup games can throw things like that up and we’ve a lot of hard work to do. We recognise that.

“We’ve got lads in now, there’ll be no changes until January, so it’s down to hard graft, getting back to basics and working our socks off.”