We lacked nerve: Magilton

Jim Magilton felt that Cliftonville lacked a combination of creativity and belief in last night’s Boyle Sports Premiership encounter with Linfield.

A second-half header from Ethan McGee ultimately proved the difference between the sides at the Clearer Twist Stadium, where Magilton acknowledged the Reds failed to ever really hit their stride.

“I thought we gave the ball up easily at times,” he said. “I thought we lacked creativity and nerve in the final third. I don’t think we did enough.

“We’ve come here with two wins very early on in the season and I expected more, so I’m extremely disappointed.

“When you’re 1-0 down, you’ve got to go for it. We showed more of a sense of urgency at the end but it’s too late. Quality players, good teams and experienced players see that game out and we did not do enough, it’s as simple as that. We still have a lot of work to do.

“It’s been an encouraging start for us in terms of those two wins but when you come here, you have to present yourself, you have to show courage, you have to go and take the ball. And then when you get into the final third, you have to have that creative spark and we just didn’t do that.

“Albeit we got ourselves into good areas, I can’t remember many crosses going into the box, I can’t remember many shots.

“I just felt that there was a little bit of fear and you can’t allow that to creep into you when you come here because they smell it and we just didn’t do enough.

“It comes down to intensity and a real desire. We had some really good individual performances but, collectively as a team, I’ve a sense that we didn’t really believe in what we were doing.”