Character role

Gerard Lyttle says the manner of yesterday’s comeback victory over Carrick Rangers demonstrated Cliftonville’s strength of character.

No sooner had they fallen behind to an early Caleb Hawthorne strike than the Reds had levelled matters through Kyle McClelland before Ben Quinn made it 2-1 ahead of the half-time break.

Despite living dangerously at times after the interval, Cliftonville arguably should have extended their advantage through either Shaun Leppard or Brian Healy before Dean McMaster’s injury-time free-kick settled matters.

“You know what you’re going to get at Carrick – it’s going to be a tough challenge,” reflected Assistant Manager Lyttle.

“You’re always trying to play the conditions, the pitch and everything around that and then, on top of that, they’ve got physical, quality players that’ll ask questions of you all the time.

“I think that’s what happened. Our boys stood up really well in terms of defending and, at times, probably put bodies on the line, which we ask of them.

“We spoke about long throws from deep and long throws from anywhere across the halfway line and the one time we did switch off and didn’t pick up quickly enough, they’ve got in at the back post which was disappointing but it’s really good that we bounced back from it and that shows a little bit of character from our lads.”

All three of Cliftonville’s goals came from summer signings and, with no fewer than seven recent recruits taking to the field over the course of the 90 minutes, Lyttle lauded the new faces’ impact on the season so far.

“The new lads have fitted in really, really well to the group and, to be fair, the group that they’ve come into are top lads,” he added.

“They’ve come in and done everything we’ve asked of them and probably more, and hopefully we’ll continue to grow.”