I Carri the can: Jim

Jim Magilton said there was “no excuse” for Cliftonville’s performance in yesterday’s heavy defeat to Carrick Rangers at Solitude.

After having a bright start rewarded with Brian Healy’s headed opener, the Reds found themselves 3-1 down thanks to a disastrous six-minute spell just before half-time.

The Gers added to their advantage to pull 4-1 clear shortly after the interval but, despite being without a raft of experienced players through injury, Magilton – who fielded a starting XI with an average age of just 22 – said he took responsibility for the outcome.

“We started really, really well,” he said.

“We talked about getting off to a quick start, which we did. We played really well, scored a really good goal and then it started to unravel in a manner where our defending wasn’t very good to say the least – it was embarrassing.

“Physically, when you’re playing against that sort of team with that quality, we got dominated, and Carrick were worthy winners.”

On being unable to build on that positive opening, he added: “The emotion in the game is very important and players have to understand that there are going to be moments in the game where you just have to dig in and be prepared to roll up your sleeves. Today, we just folded.

“Yes, there was a bit of inexperience in the team and it’s a huge learning curve for them because this is big boys’ football and they’ve got to learn very, very quickly. Some made really poor decisions today and it cost us.

“There’s no excuse. I take full responsibility. I pick the team because I trust them and when they step over that white line, of course they have to take responsibility, but the buck stops with me. When we look at them, we think that we have fitted in the right team and the right set-up and for 20 minutes, it looked great but after that, it was a house of cards.”