Nerve notice

Jim Magilton lamented a “nervy” performance that saw Cliftonville concede a late advantage against Linfield last night.

Ahead through Joe Gormley’s 76th minute finish, the Reds conceded twice in two minutes as Kyle McClean and Matthew Fitzpatrick completed the turnaround at Windsor Park.

While the visitors found themselves on the wrong side of some evidently incorrect refereeing decisions over the course of the game, Magilton admitted the Blues were worthy victors.

“We were really poor in the first-half, we didn’t play,” he said.

“We didn’t have the strength of our own conviction, which was really, really disappointing – we needed half-time to come and actually made a game of it in the second-half. We created a wonderful opportunity and Joe does what he does best with an excellent finish.

“At 1-0, you’re hoping that settles us down. I thought we looked nervy. Linfield were very good in terms of pressing and asking questions of us and we didn’t have enough answers, or we didn’t have enough bravery with the ball.

“We had a little period where I thought we could go and play and express ourselves, but their equaliser kills us. They then have momentum and we were all over the place for the second goal, so it’s two really, really poor goals in terms of how we set up and our structure. We didn’t do enough and I think Linfield were deserved winners.”

Having seen a well-timed Axel Piesold challenge on Joel Cooper punished with a wrongly awarded first-half penalty, justice was at least done when David Odumosu saved Chris Shields’ effort from the spot.

The same could not be said, however, when a particularly poor offside call early in the second period halted Conor Pepper’s progress when he was one-on-one with goalkeeper David Walsh following Rory Hale’s pass.

“I was never a penalty, it’s also never an offside for Conor Pepper,” added Magilton.

“Those decisions could have really turned the game. The penalty call turned it for us in terms of David making a magnificent save, but then Conor Pepper’s clean through and it’s a really bad decision again, a really poor one.

“It’s not even a close one. We’ve had that a few times, but the officiating didn’t lose the game for us, we lost the game ourselves.”