Glent a hand

Cliftonville  1-2 Glentoran

Cliftonville slipped to a calamitous defeat to Glentoran despite bossing the majority of this afternoon’s Sports Direct Premiership encounter at Solitude.

Ahead through Joe Gormley, the Reds were pegged back in bizarre circumstances on the stroke of half-time before an error allowed the Glens to seize the lead ahead of the hosts ending the contest a man light when Odhran Casey was dismissed after collecting two yellow cards.

Despite seeing their numbers depleted by a combination of injury, illness and suspension, Cliftonville got to grips with things early on and fashioned the first opening of the game when good work between Rory Hale and Gormley put Taylor Steven in on goal only for the alert Daniel Gyollai to turn the Scotsman’s effort behind.

The deadlock was broken just before the half-hour mark when a quickly taken free-kick from Hale released Steven on the right and his inviting cross was nodded in at the back post by Gormley.

It should have been 2-0 soon later when the same pair combined, only for Gyollai to this time stop Gormley’s header on the line.

A dangerous cross from Micheal Glynn found no takers in the middle as a dominant Reds went in search of a second goal only to be stunned just before the interval when a free-kick from visiting keeper Gyollai caught the wind and bounced beyond the stranded David Odumosu to level things up.

The second period was much the same in terms of the Reds bossing possession and, while not quite so many opportunities were forthcoming, they did see Hale send a free-kick wide before Steven had an effort cleared off the line after he had beaten Gyollai in a race to the ball.

Gormley was unable to get on the end of a wind-assisted pass that split the defence of a Glentoran side who, an effort from substitute Wassim Aouachria aside, had not really threatened at the other end until a 78th minute free-kick from Daniel Amos was spilled into the net by Odumosu.

The Reds went in desperate search of an equaliser thereafter but could not create anything clear-cut, with a goalmouth scramble involving Gormley and Harry Wilson amounting to nothing before a dangerous delivery from Coran Madden was gathered by the keeper.

Cliftonville’s frustrations were compounded when Casey, who had earlier been booked, received a second yellow card in controversial circumstances, having been adjudged to have fouled David Fisher after the ball had already gone out of play for a home throw-in; the Reds defender’s argument that he was adopting a safety-first approach by playing until the whistle falling on the deaf ears of referee Tim Marshall.

Cliftonville: Odumosu, Newberry, Kearney, Hale, Curran (Pettifer, 89 mins), Piesold (Corrigan, 84 mins), Gormley, Glynn, Casey, Wilson, Steven (Madden, 82 mins). Unused subs: Ridd, Ojo, Markey, Hawthorne.