We did too Lyttle, says Gerard

Gerard Lyttle admitted that Cliftonville didn’t do enough to merit winning yesterday’s Sports Direct Premiership clash with Ballymena United.

After a tame first-half, the Reds appeared to be getting on top of things after the interval and saw a Jack Keaney header cleared off the line before Alex Parsons drew a save from home goalkeeper Sean O’Neill.

Axel Piesold had the visitors’ best chance when he skewed wide from around 12 yards out but any momentum that Cliftonville were building was snuffed out when Cian Korbally was the beneficiary of a hesitant pass, with the midfielder being supplied the ball before finding the bottom corner 11 minutes from time.

“I thought we played okay without testing Sean O’Neill,” said Lyttle, standing in for the suspended Jim Magilton.

“Obviously we’ve made a silly mistake and we’ve got punished for it and I think that’s been the case this week in terms of the Dungannon game on Wednesday and this game.

“The pitch here probably doesn’t suit the way we want to play but I thought we still tried to play. I felt like we dominated the majority of possession but possession doesn’t win you games and when we got into the final third, our overall decision making let us down.

“We didn’t create enough chances, didn’t put enough balls in the box, didn’t test their back three or Sean O’Neill enough.

“Before they scored, it seemed to be going the way of the draw because there didn’t seem to be anything in it but a mistake’s cost us and it’s lost us the game.”