Jim salutes goalden twist

Jim Magilton believes the “wonderful” Shea Gordon goal that set Cliftonville on their way to victory over Carrick Rangers yesterday changed the complexion of the whole afternoon.

Though dominant in possession, the Reds had failed to carve out any clear-cut openings and, indeed, were grateful to Lewis Ridd for the two saves he made when the visitors created the best opportunities of the opening 45 minutes.

Right on the stroke of half-time, however, Gordon applied the finishing touch to an eye-catching move that saw Joe Gormley flick Luke Conlan’s pass into the midfielder’s path and, after the break, Ryan Curran showed good initiative to scramble home a second amid a goalmouth scramble before Alex Parsons netted the rebound after his late penalty had been saved to ensure Cliftonville will enter the Sports Direct Premiership’s post-split programme in seventh place.

“First of all, it’s hugely disappointing not to be in the top six,” reflected Magilton.

“That’s the downside of all of this. As a group, we’re extremely disappointed but today we had to deal with today and whatever was going to come our way.

“We talked about getting on the front foot and playing, applying pressure on to Carrick. I thought we did that right from the first whistle and if there were any negatives, it’s that, especially in the first-half, we didn’t work their goalkeeper enough. We didn’t make him make enough saves and our crosses into the box lacked a little bit of quality, but then we scored a wonderful goal and that changes the landscape of all conversations at half-time.

“We knew then if we could control the game and control possession, we could create opportunities and we did that.”

The Reds return to League duty in another meeting with Carrick on April 1 but prior to that comes a Clearer Water Irish Cup semi-final with Ards that Magilton insists is by no means a foregone conclusion.

“Our aim and our mission is to try and win every game from now until the end of the season and that would mean firstly beating an in-form Ards who are flying at the minute,” he added.

“They have lost one on 13 and won again this weekend, so they’ll be buoyant, they’ll be very, very confident and so they should be. They deserve and have earned the right to come and play in an Irish Cup semi-final. We know the prize is huge – we set out to defend the trophy, we’re in a semi-final now and we’ve got to do everything we can to win the game.”