Cancel culture

Paddy McLaughlin believes that a draw was a fair outcome in a game that saw Cliftonville and Larne “cancel each other out” at Inver Park yesterday.

The Reds went close through Ryan Curran and Ryan O’Reilly in the first-half, while goalkeeper Aaron McCarey produced a handful of smart stops to deny the hosts in a contest that could have gone either way in the closing exchanges.

While Cliftonville looked to be generating some momentum following the introduction of Paul O’Neill and Daniel Kearns from the subs’ bench, McLaughlin says that a point apiece was the right result.

“The scoreline tells you everything you need to know, both sides cancelled the other out,” he reflected.

“Both teams created a couple of half-chances, I don’t think there was anything too clear-cut – we’ve hit the bar with a chance and they’ve flashed a couple of balls across our six-yard box. I think a draw’s probably a fair result.

“We were a lot more threatening in the final third after Daniel Kearns came on, he tried to make things happen, just like Daire O’Connor was excellent in trying to make things happen in the first-half.

“There’s never too many goals in these games because the two sides fully respect each other and understand how good each other are and that’s what happens – you cancel each other out when there’s not much between the two sides.”