A poor second

Jim Magilton acknowledged that Cliftonville were “really, really poor” in yesterday’s North Belfast Derby at Solitude.

Crusaders savoured festive success courtesy of goals in either half from Jarlath O’Rourke and Adam Brooks, with the Reds’ response coming from Odhran Casey deep into injury-time.

Eric McWoods, Jack Keaney and Conor Pepper had all gone close to levelling matters when there was still one goal in it, with Magilton left feeling that his side paid the price for a below par opening 45 minutes.

“Just really disappointing,” was his summary of the contest.

“In the first-half, we lacked intensity and were nowhere near the levels.

“It’s not an understatement to talk about the importance of the game, especially for our supporters who packed the place out today. For us, it was just really poor and you can’t get away from that, albeit we did create a great opportunity at the end of the first-half when Eric McWoods should score, but it’s summed them up where they’ve thrown everything at us and thrown bodies on the line, and that was the difference.

“We weren’t winning any second balls, we lost tackles and didn’t play anywhere near the levels that I expect of this team and what they’ve shown over recent weeks.

“We were just really, really poor.”

Though things might have been different had Cliftonville been able to make the most of the chances that came their way at 1-0, Magilton added: “We huffed and puffed. We’ve had great opportunities but we’ve conceded two really poor set-piece goals and it was through poor marking and nobody really showing that intent to keep the ball out of our net.”