Slow profile

Jim Magilton admitted Cliftonville were “slow out of the blocks” in last night’s BetMcLean Cup second round tie with Strabane Athletic but was pleased with how his players set about rectifying things from 2-0 down.

The Reds’ grip on the trophy they won last season looked to have been eased when Gary Merritt and Oisin Murray scored inside the opening 12 minutes for the visitors but Joe Gormley’s 300th goal for the Club sparked a first-half comeback that was completed by Micheál Glynn and Jonny Addis supplying cool finishes to eye-catching passing sequences.

Substitutes Joe Sheridan and Conor Falls opened their Cliftonville accounts in the second period to ensure the holders’ place in the quarter-finals.

“First of all, credit where credit’s due – Strabane were outstanding,” said Magilton, who made eight changes to the side that drew with Linfield in the Sports Direct Premiership on Sunday.

“Despite giving our lads enough information and talking about how disciplined they are and how structurally very good they are, they played with aggression and deserved their 2-0 lead. We were so slow out of the blocks and there might be some excuse for lads who haven’t played but there’s no excuse for the goals, they were really poor goals defensively.

“That kind of wakened us up and when we start passing and moving the ball, we created opportunities and might have had one or two more before half-time but, again, credit to Strabane because they restricted us to an extent and then our substitutions helped us and we ran out 5-2 winners but, in all fairness to Strabane, it flattered us.”

While booking Cliftonville’s progress to the next round was the evening’s top priority, there’s no doubting that Gormley’s milestone moment was the highlight of an entertaining contest, and Magilton lauded the 35-year-old afterwards.

“Let’s put that in context. For Joe Gormley to score 300 goals at this Club is just a remarkable achievement for a remarkable player,” he said.

“The hardest thing in this game is putting the ball in the back of the net and to think that he’s done it 300 times is just an outstanding achievement and he deserves all the accolades that are going to come his way.”