We didn’t do enough: Jim

Jim Magilton felt that complacency in possession played a key role in Cliftonville’s defeat to Ballymena United in yesterday’s Sports Direct Premiership clash at Solitude.

Despite bossing territory from start to finish, the Reds went down to an Andy Scott strike on 70 minutes and were left to rue their failure to make the most of gilt-edged first-half openings that saw both Arran Pettifer and Rory Hale off target with headers.

Magilton was pleased with his players’ willingness to fight until the last whistle but acknowledged that repeatedly giving the ball away hurt their prospects of building any sustained momentum.

“On a day when chances were at a premium, we’ve had two great opportunities – Arran Pettifer’s in particular,” he said.

“If that goes in, it gives you more control in the game and then you can relax and play, but it was always a difficult afternoon for us.The longer the game wore on, you just felt that they were going to get an opportunity, especially on the counter-attack because we were pressing so much, and that proved to be the case.

“There was a little bit of complacency. I thought we turned the ball over far too much at times and that gives the opposition real encouragement. We can’t afford to do that. With the quality of player that we have, given the amount of times we did turn it over, was hugely disappointing.

“In saying all that, we still kept going right to the end but it was one of those days where it’s so frustrating because once Ballymena had something to hold on to, they defended for their lives. We huffed and puffed and produced some decent quality in the box but obviously not enough. It was a game where we just didn’t do enough.”