Way off the mark

Jim Magilton believes Cliftonville missed an opportunity to lay down a big marker by slumping to defeat against Ballymena United yesterday.

Trailing to an early Ben Kennedy penalty, the Reds drew level through Jonny Addis but failed to make that momentum-swing count for anything ahead of the Sky Blues pulling 3-1 in front courtesy of headers from Kym Nelson and Ethan Devine.

Joe Gormley’s late spot kick set up an interesting finale but, aside from a slight scramble in which Micheál Glynn saw an attempt blocked, Cliftonville were unable to fashion anything gilt-edged at The Showgrounds.

“It was so lacklustre, it was so lethargic,” reflected Magilton.

“Even when we get ourselves back into the game, I thought we’d kick on and we didn’t. There was a lack of urgency, a lack of real quality and we gave the ball away so cheaply.

“While possession is something that we pride ourselves on, we never forced a save from the keeper in the second-half, which is mind-boggling – to think of the quality we have in our team, to think that Sean O’Neill hasn’t had a save to make. Our quality in the final third was really, really poor.

“You’re going into this game thinking we have to kick on, we have to really lay down a marker – but we were so far off it, it was unbelievable.”

Having seen his side produce positive performances in last Saturday’s 5-1 victory over Loughgall and midweek draw with Linfield, Magilton felt that – the ill Ryan Curran aside – it was only fair to stick with the same XI that had started both of those encounters.

“Maybe in hindsight, I’d make changes, but you just want to continue the momentum,” he added.

“We had momentum, as did Ballymena, going into the game and there was nothing which suggested we were going to turn up and play in the manner we did.”