Half hearted

Jim Magilton saluted the “guts” Cliftonville showed in adversarial circumstances yesterday but acknowledged that a substandard first-half display left them with too much to do against Dungannon Swifts.

The Reds’ winning run came to an end thanks in large part to a disastrous 14-minute spell at Stangmore Park.

Cliftonville fell behind when a Tomas Galvin shot was handled on the line by Rory Hale before Junior forced the loose ball into the net. Referee Declan Hassan had, however, been somewhat hasty in blowing his whistle to award the penalty and, duty bound to rule the goal out, was then obliged to give Hale his marching orders.

Junior stepped up to convert from the spot before the hosts doubled their advantage when Caolan Marron rose to meet Kealan Dillon’s free-kick.

After Joe Gormley pulled one back early in the second-half, a galvanised Reds side almost levelled through Odhran Casey before Jack Keaney had a header cleared off the line.

Conor Falls was unable to direct an attempt the right side of the crossbar and Eric McWoods shot straight at the keeper before visiting momentum was stalled when a second booking for Jonny Addis saw the visitors reduced to nine men for the closing stages.

“We didn’t get out of the blocks at all in the first-half, didn’t play particularly well with or without the ball and conceded poor goals,” said Magilton.

“The one thing you need when you go down to 10 men is effort and courage, it’s do-or-die, and we got a it of that in the second-half. We got ourselves back into it, we did create opportunities to get back into the game further but we didn’t take them.”

Reflecting on the chances his men carved out as they chased what would in the end have been a well-merited point, Magilton added: “Conor Falls has a great opportunity, then Eric’s is a great opportunity and, on another day, you might be coming away with something totally different but, in terms of effort and that courage to get back into the game, it’s easy to fold and they didn’t. They showed guts in the second-half but we just didn’t do enough in the first-half.”