Magilton: We didn’t do enough

Jim Magilton has expressed his disappointment in Cliftonville not demonstrating the necessary quality to win last night’s County Antrim Shield Final.

Ahead through Ryan Curran early on, the Reds were pegged back deep into the second-half when a long spell of Carrick Rangers pressure was eventually rewarded with an Adam Lecky equaliser before the Gers went in to win 4-2 on penalties.

Magilton made a number of changes to the side that fell to defeat against the same opposition on Saturday but was frustrated with Cliftonville’s inability to generate any kind of momentum, particularly in the second period.

“We changed the personnel, making six changes, but we also had to change our mentality,” he said.

“We started the game so well on Saturday, but we lost the game because of the basics – physical challenges, physical impact, not working hard enough, not closing people down.We talked about that before the game and the first-half was a real physical battle.

“For me, we didn’t play enough, we didn’t pass the ball enough. We didn’t do enough in areas when we had the chance to play through them.

“In saying that, you must credit the opposition because they worked so hard.”

The Reds came close to winning it before the end of the 90 minutes when Curran’s ball across the face of goal was met by Liam McStravick at the far post but, at full stretch, the substitute was unable to steer his effort beneath the crossbar – a moment Magilton feels suggested his side’s name wasn’t meant to be on the silverware.

“We have a relatively young team, we are trying to grow young players at the Football Club,” he added.

“When they play in this team, there is a certain amount of accountability. We love them and we trust them. It worked well for us to a certain extent, but Carrick kept going. We were so poor in the second-half and that’s what disappointed me.

“There are fine margins. It was a one-off Cup Final and both teams were determined to win it, but Carrick were asking so many questions of us in the second-half which meant we didn’t get high enough up the pitch. We were camped in and we didn’t have enough quality.

“There are only so many times you can defend against that. We tried to hit them on the counter-attack and we had a fantastic chance right at the end to win it; then you’re thinking it’s maybe one of those nights.”