A United effort falls short

Cliftonville 0-1 Ballymena United

Ten-man Cliftonville fell to an unfortunate and somewhat controversial defeat against Ballymena United at Solitude this afternoon.

Having gone close to opening the scoring when Rhyss Campbell struck the post and Brian Healy saw a low drive blocked, the Reds were dealt a blow on the stroke of half-time when Paul Stanfield was dismissed after a second bookable offence.

Igor Rutkowski scored what proved the only goal of the contest on 58 minutes but, amid a lengthy spell of home pressure, Cliftonville saw Liam McStravick kept at bay by visiting goalkeeper David Walsh, whose injury-time foul on Healy went unpunished by the referee, denying the Reds a last-gasp penalty to rescue a point.

Full report to follow…