Monday Monthly: February

A few days ahead of Cliftonville’s first competitive home game 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 hectic February taking today’s spotlight.

Glenavon provided the opposition on Irish Cup sixth round day, with Cliftonville forced to dig deep to see off a spirited effort from the visitors, who twice bounced back from going behind.

Ahead at the interval through Arran Pettifer, the Reds were pegged back after the break but restored their advantage through a sensational late Rory Hale strike that looked to have secured passage to the quarter-finals, only for Glenavon to force extra-time with an injury-time leveller.

Early in extra-time, Axel Piesold split the Lurgan Blues’ defence with an incisive pass that allowed Jonny Addis (above) to settle the issue with a blistering finish.

After the action-packed nature of that end-to-end encounter, the following midweek produced one of the all-time dire duels as Cliftonville and Coleraine played out an almost entirely uneventful goalless draw at The Showgrounds.

The Reds were forced to settle for a point again a few days later when two leads slipped against Portadown at Solitude, where Ryan Curran and Hale (above) had put the hosts 1-0 and 2-1 up only for the away side to battle back on each occasion.

There were no such slip-ups when Carrick Rangers arrived in BT14, with Hale’s first-half opener paving the way for eye-catching strikes from Alex Parsons (below) and Stephen McGuinness to seal a much welcome Premiership victory.

Glenavon then exacted revenge for their Irish Cup elimination when they cruised to a comfortable 3-1 win at Mournview Park – where McGuinness’ consolation effort proved the goal of the day – only for Cliftonville to bounce back with a stirring display against Glentoran.

Curran broke the deadlock just past the hour when he followed up on goalkeeper Daniel Gyollai’s failure to keep hold of a Hale shot and it wasn’t long before Jack Keaney (above) powered home a header that put the hosts in full control.

Jim Magilton’s side duly took that confidence with them into a gargantuan North Belfast Derby duel with Crusaders at Seaview, where a place in the semi-finals of the Irish Cup was on the line.

Watched by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, the Reds took the lead through a superb Curran header before a thumping Parsons finish (below) made it 2-0.

The Crues pulled one back soon later but, despite throwing everything at it, they were unable to breach the visiting defence again, with Cliftonville holding on to book a last-four tussle with Ards.

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February 2025
Cliftonville 3-2 Glenavon
Pettifer, Hale, Addis

Coleraine 0-0 Cliftonville

Cliftonville 2-2 Portadown
Curran, Hale

Cliftonville 3-0 Carrick Rangers
Hale, Parsons, McGuinness

Glenavon 3-1 Cliftonville
McGuinness

Cliftonville 2-0 Glentoran
Curran, Keaney

Crusaders 1-2 Cliftonville
Curran, Parsons