Cliftonville were left rueing a momentum-swinging penalty decision that contributed to Larne staging a second-half comeback in this evening’s Sports Direct Premiership encounter at Solitude.
Ahead when Ruaidhri Donnelly’s 17th minute header crossed the line from a Ronan Doherty corner, the Reds – who also went close through Shaun Leppard and Ryan Curran in an impressive first-half display – were pegged back when Tomas Cosgrove drew the visitors level shortly after the break.
It was, however, referee Christopher Morrison’s 66th minute decision to award Larne a penalty that really swung the contest in the away side’s favour, with Jonny Addis – who was sent off for his involvement – clearly fouling Andy Ryan outside the box.
Uplifted by the double boost of seeing Cliftonville reduced to 10 men before taking the lead courtesy of Andy Ryan’s spot kick, Larne made sure of the points shortly afterwards when Paul O’Neill nodded in at the back post to complete the night’s scoring.
Cliftonville: Odumosu, Addis, Newberry, Kearney, Curran (Steven 42), Donnelly (Marley 78), Leppard, Lowe (Hale 16), Doherty, Piesold (Pettifer 78), Glynn. Unused subs: Ridd, Stewart, Gormley.