Banging down the door

Jim Magilton says he wasn’t surprised by how difficult Bangor made things for Cliftonville in last night’s BetMcLean Cup second round tie.

Though the Reds were deserved winners, it took a 90th minute strike from Ryan Corrigan to settle a game that had previously seen Joe Gormley, Ryan Curran, Rory Hale, Micheal Glynn, Taylor Steven and Ryan Markey go close to making the breakthrough.

With extra-time looming, however, Corrigan took receipt of a Rory Hale pass and sidestepped himself into some space before producing a cool finish to send the visitors through to this afternoon’s quarter-final draw.

“It took a quality goal to win the game and Ryan popped up with it,” said Magilton. “I’m really delighted for him, he’s a fantastic lad.

“We expected a tough game from Bangor and, to be fair to them, they gave us that because they defended resolutely and were throwing bodies on the line.

“We created some half-chances that we just couldn’t capitalise on but we stuck at it and it was a hard-fought victory in the end.

“I never thought it would be anything other than difficult because Bangor are in good form and it was no surprise that they made us work hard, but Ryan has produced a moment of real quality at the end to send us through.”