Cliftonville fell to their first defeat of the season after Linfield hit back to take full points in this evening’s Sports Direct Premiership clash at Windsor Park.
After falling behind to a Chris McKee goal at the end of a first-half they had largely controlled, the Reds levelled matters through Luke Turner with 10 minutes to go – only to concede within two minutes when Joel Cooper’s header found the back of the net.
Though Cliftonville have plenty of positives to take from their performance, they will be disappointed not to have capitalised during a strong opening 45 minutes, although they very nearly got off to the worst possible start when a short pass from Nathan Gartside provided Jamie Mulgrew with a free run on goal only for the visiting keeper to atone with an important save.
At the other end, a long range effort from Chris Gallagher was comfortably fielded by Chris Johns ahead of Jonny Addis glancing a header wide from Gallagher’s inviting corner delivery.
A well-worked opening down the left saw Turner cut the ball back for Wilson, whose stepover allowed Ronan Doherty to fire in a shot that was charged down by Blues midfielder Kyle McClean and, on 40 minutes, a miscued clearance from Johns was seized upon by Rory Hale, whose 35 yard attempt brought an unorthodox stop out of the keeper, who very nearly parried the ball into his own net only to have a sigh of relief when it scaled the crossbar.
Totally against the run of play, Linfield then took the lead. Cooper did well to win possession deep inside his own half and, following an assertive forward run, slipped in McKee for a shot which took a deflection off Turner on its way past Gartside.
An immediate leveller almost arrived when Ben Wilson’s low cross was cut out by Johns with Sean Stewart lurking and, early in the second-half, Gartside did well to prevent the hosts from doubling their lead with saves from Kirk Millar and Daniel Finlayson inside a minute.
With 20 minutes to play, Jamie Robinson came within inches of connecting with a Doherty corner and, from a corner of their own, Linfield rattled the bar through Finlayson ahead of Odhran Casey clearing a follow-up effort off the line.
Cliftonville got the goal they deserved soon later when Gallagher picked out Doherty with a corner kick and the midfielder’s first-time dink into the danger area was scrambled in from close range by Turner.
With the momentum behind them to go on and win the game, the Reds found themselves behind again within two minutes when a delivery to the back post caught the defence flat footed and Cooper was on hand to nod into the far corner.
The visitors were unable to fashion any further chances thereafter but departed the field to a standing ovation from a travelling fanbase evidently heartened by a positive performance.
Cliftonville:Gartside, Stewart, Addis, Gallagher, Rory Hale, Lowe, Robinson (Pepper, 89 mins), Doherty (Berry, 89 mins), Casey, Turner, Wilson. Unused subs: Odumosu, C Curran, McDonagh, Storey, McGuinness.