Magilton lauds united effort

Jim Magilton believes a joint effort between players and fans helped Cliftonville get back to winning ways last night.

Ben Quinn’s 54th minute strike was enough to book progress to the semi-finals of the County Antrim Shield at Glentoran’s expense and, while the visitors struck the post twice during the closing exchanges, the Reds went close to doubling their advantage through Brian Healy, Rory Hale and Harry Wilson.

“We took our chance really well – from defending a set piece to scoring,” said Magilton.

“Building on Saturday, where there were a lot of good things, we needed to show more ambition in attack and more courage in attack.

“I felt at times that we controlled the tempo and I think when we can do that, we’re a good side. We just haven’t done that often enough and we had one or two opportunities where we could have killed the game off.

“You always have to be cautious against a team of Glentoran’s quality and the quality they can bring off the bench but everybody worked their socks off, it was a real togetherness and there was a real united front, and that’s important, we’re going to need that.

“The fans here tonight were outstanding, they stayed with the team – which, again, is really, really important – and within the game, we have to give them something to feed off and I thought we did that.”

Not only did the win set up a last-four date with Bangor next month, it also brought an end to Cliftonville’s recent losing streak – but Magilton is well aware of the importance of building on that when his side return to Boyle Sports Premiership duty against Portadown on Saturday night.

“We’ve got to knuckle down now and focus on the League,” he added.

“This one we can tuck away and look forward to a semi-final but the bread and butter is the League and we’ve got to be better in that. Hopefully that’s a building block.

“We had to show that quality of resilience and that quality of competitiveness. That was something that we talked about and the players responded magnificently well, so they deserve the credit.”