Drawn aside

Jim Magilton felt Cliftonville let two points slip away in last night’s Sports Direct Premiership meeting with Ballymena United.

Two goals to the good at half-time thanks to an alert finish from Sean Robertson and a well-taken Brian Healy strike, the second period proved to be one tale of woe after another as first Rory Hale was red carded for the foul that allowed United to reduce the arrears from the penalty spot before Robertson was forced off injured ahead of Joe Toole’s own goal drawing the visitors level.

Even a man light, the Reds had gone close through a low drive from Keevan Hawthorne and a Healy header that came back off the post and, while he was pleased with his team’s work rate, Magilton was left to rue their inability to emerge with a win.

“I thought we were good in the first-half,” he said.

“We were busy and looked as if we were going to score goals, which was really important. I’ve been slightly critical of us in the final third and still think we can tighten up up there and be better in the final third.

“We were a little bit wasteful towards the end of the first-half when we had opportunities three-v-two and two-v-one but our final ball wasn’t good enough.

“When you go down to 10 men, you have to show character and resilience because it’s always a massive shift. The players worked their socks off and we’ve come away with a point but there’s a sense of disappointment.”

On the red card incident that swung the dial in Ballymena’s favour, he added: “It’s poor decision-making from our point of view.

“We haven’t really set to play out and we’ve given Ballymena an opportunity to press, which they did. It’s a heavy touch from Rory, it’s got away from him and then he’s the last man and it’s a red card. It was a culmination of poor decision making on our part and it’s cost us.”