Monday Monthly: January

A day ahead of Cliftonville contesting their first competitive fixture of the 2025/26 season, cliftonvillefc.net continues a weekly mini-series reflecting on the good, the bad and the in-betweens of last term.

Every Monday between now and the new domestic campaign getting under way, we’re taking a chronological look back on a month from the the 2024/25 schedule – with a January that presented significant challenges away from the pitch taking today’s spotlight.

Still attempting to come to terms with the tragic loss of team-mate Michael Newberry just five days earlier, Reds players began their defence of the Clearer Water Irish Cup against a backdrop of grief at am emotionally-charged Solitude.

With supporters having made continued additions to the scarves, shirts, candles, flowers and notes that had accrued at the turnstiles throughout the week, many were in in their seats in good time to play a full role in a pre-match memorial ceremony.

Having dispensed with our traditional walkout music Dearg Doom in favour of Going Home – the anthem utilised by Michael’s beloved Newcastle United at St James’ Park – the teams, sporting black armbands, emerged with captain Rory Hale and Banbridge Rangers counterpart Peter Smyth carrying wreaths which were placed alongside Michael’s matchworn home and away jerseys in the middle of the pitch.

A minute’s applause saw Cliftonville’s starting line-up and substitutes joined by fellow members of the first-team squad in honouring their much-missed team-mate and friend before a blast of referee Michael McKenna’s whistle signalled that it was time for the Reds’ defence of the Irish Cup to begin.

An understandably subdued home support chanted a few choruses of ‘There’s only one Michael Newberry’ as the game got under way and, on a day when the action on the pitch was in many ways secondary to the sheer sense of occasion, the record books noted that Ryan Corrigan, Axel Piesold, Joe Gormley and Kris Lowe scored the goals in a 4-0 victory.

The following week, Cliftonville suffered a 2-0 defeat to Larne on Sports Direct Premieship duty but atoned when they returned to Inver Park for a Bet McLean Cup semi-final tussle a few days later.

After 90 goalless minutes during which the hosts were reduced to 10 men when Shaun Want was dimissed for a poor challenge on Hale, the occasion looked set to be decided in a penalty shootout only for the Reds to conjure up one of the highlights of the season when, late in extra-time, Hale delivered the cross which Destiny Ojo met to dramatically set up a Cup Final date with Glentoran at Windsor Park.

That, coincidentally, was the team’s next port of call for a League meeting with Linfield when, despite taking the lead through a smart Gormley finish, Cliftonville were undone when the Blues bagged two quickfire goals to turn the game around.

January 2025
Cliftonville 4-0 Banbridge Rangers
Corrigan, Piesold, Gormley, Lowe

Larne 2-0 Cliftonville

Larne 0-1 Cliftonville
Ojo

Linfield 2-1 Cliftonville
Gormley