We were second best: Magilton

Jim Magilton felt Cliftonville lacked intensity in yesterday’s defeat to Glenavon at Mourneview Park.

Temporarily down to 10 men while Ryan Curran received off-field treatment, the Reds fell behind when Michael O’Connor drilled home before Jack Malone’s lobbed finish ensured a comfortable half-time lead for the Lurgan Blues.

Though Cliftonville began the second period with a little more drive, any hopes of forging a comeback were all but snuffed out when Davy McDaid’s penalty made it 3-0, rendering Stephen McGuinness’ eye-catching late strike a mere consolation on what was a bad day at the office for Magilton’s side.

“We were poor,” he acknowledged.

“We didn’t match the intensity that Glenavon brought to the game and, overall, we were second best and had too many individual performances that fell well below the bar.

“There was nothing really in the game until the first goal but in the 20 minutes that followed that, we made really poor decisions and Glenavon capitalised on it. Our poor decisions led to goals.

“I still felt at half-time that the next goal was going to be important but we huffed and puffed and didn’t really do enough. We changed our formation to try and overload wide areas and get our full-backs higher up the pitch, but we lacked fizz, we lacked that impetus that we can play with.”

While the game was Cliftonville’s fourth in 11 days – compared to Glenavon’s first since their Irish Cup exit at Solitude a fortnight ago – Magilton was reluctant to cite that as a factor in the outcome.

“I’m not one for excuses,” he added.

“We looked leggy, there’s no question about that. We did freshen it up, we tried to make changes from the other night simply because lads haven’t played an awful lot – but the changes were to win the game and to try to have a positive effect.”