Rally good reaction

Jim Magilton saluted his players’ response to a half-time rallying call during yesterday’s Sports Direct Premiership clash with Portadown.

Trailing to a first-half finish from Jordan Gibson, which came seconds after Ryan Curran had struck the post, the Reds dominated the second period and were rewarded when Joe Sheridan showed neat feet and composure inside the box to level matters 10 minutes after the restart.

Curran got his goal when Josh Ukek’s use of an arm to block a Sheridan cross earned a penalty kick, with Jack Keaney maintaining his recent goalscoring form by nodding Cliftonville 3-1 up ahead of Rhys Annett bagging a late consolation for the Ports.

“The first-half was pretty even-steven until we’ve created a wonderful opportunity; great play, a fantastic cross, a fantastic header – although he’ll be very disappointed he hasn’t scored – and then, as discussed pre-game about how pacy they are in transition, we got caught out,” reflected Magilton on going 1-0 down.

“Potentially on another day, it’s a foul on Harry (Wilson) but we didn’t get it, but one of their strengths is the counter-attack and they score a goal.

“We go in at half-time, we regroup, we talked about just increasing the quality and in the second-half, we were really, really good.”

Having also overturned a half-time deficit during the midweek County Antrim Shield semi-final meeting with Ballymena United, Magilton was confident his men had levels to climb during the second period at Shamrock Park.

“I thought for the first 45 minutes, we were a bit lethargic from Tuesday night,” he added.

“Physically, it was a demanding pitch and this was another demanding pitch but we don’t deal in excuses here and the players don’t.

“At half-time, we knew we had more gears and that we needed to go through those gears. We had the energy to really get up with play and show the courage that they have.

“Joe Sheridan’s goal is wonderful, it’s absolutely wonderful. It’s a wonderfully composed goal to get us back into it and then we were in the ascendancy and I thought we controlled things a lot more and ran out deserved winners.”