Danske Bank Premiership: Cliftonville 1 Dungannon Swifts 2
CLIFTONVILLE boss Gerard Lyttle has called Saturday's 2-1 home defeat to Dungannon Swifts as "poor" a performance as he has witnessed in his time at Solitude as coach and manager.
The Reds have taken only four points from their opening four games to already sit six points off the top of the table. Following a slow start to the clash with the Dungannon side - who won for the first time at Solitude in 30 visits - Andrew Mitchell opened the scoring on 26 minutes from an Alan Teggart cross.
Mitchell made it 2-0 on 63 minutes when he collected a long ball and coolly rounded Jason Mooney to slot home. And although Caoimhin Bonner headed home a corner on 73 to halve the deficit, that was as good as it got for the north Belfast men.
"We haven’t really started yet to be honest," said Lyttle.
"We were hoping from the European games - to take positives from that - to kick us into the campaign, but we definitely haven’t started. We haven’t even got out of second gear.
"The first day we’ve gave up two leads against Ards - 1-0 up and then 2-1 and we got a response on the Wednesday against Glentoran, which was brilliant. Then, I think in the Glenavon game we were very unlucky. In my opinion we were robbed slightly in terms of decisions going against us, but Saturday now it was just as poor as I‘ve seen us - certainly since I have been there as manager and coach."
The manager insisted that the problem lay in the failure to carry out that most basic of requirements - namely to work harder than your rivals. Lyttle is certain that the quality is there within his squad - but is equally certain that this is not enough.
"Dungannon were the better team," he said.
"There’s no making any bones about it. They outplayed us, they out-fought us, they out-worked us. They looked as if they wanted to win the game more than we did. We had a wee spell in the last five minutes of the first-half where we could have maybe scored two.
"Then going into the second-half we started the game well and it was just poor defending from the team - not even from the back-four - from the team. It was just a performance that, certainly, to me as the manager, is not acceptable and it’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing for me to be standing as the manager and seeing that.
"I think it’s been our mentality. Against Ards we thought we just had to turn up. Dungannon was the same - we just had to turn up and players will do it for us - and it doesn’t work like that.
"In this league - I keep stressing to the players - you gotta work harder than the opposition. That’s a given and at the minute we’re not doing that. We’re not working harder than the opposition. We’re not dominating games enough and we’re leaking really really poor goals.
"We haven’t matched the hard work of Dungannon and there’s no point just having all this ability and being great players if you don’t have the hard work and that’s just the bottom line."
Next up for his stuttering side is a trip to Fermanagh to face Ballinamallard. Lyttle insists that the slide must be addressed immediately: "I told the players on Saturday - this has to be turned round real quick," he said.
"We can’t go from the highs of winning against top teams in Europe, and doing well and competing to just going and playing against teams in our league and letting it count for nothing.
"We have got to get a game under our belt where we have to win and build momentum from that and hopefully Saturday we can pick up the points and certainly a performance as well."
Elsewhere on Saturday, Ards moved to the top of the table after a high scoring clash with Ballymena United. Stuart McMullan opened the scoring for Ards before Ballymena equalised through Allan Jenkins and took the lead when Cathair Friel finished superbly.
Ards restored parity when Emmet Friars headed in another McAllister set piece and went back in front just before half time when Joe McKinney scored. Caolan Loughran made it 3-3 after half-time and the winner arrived a minute from time when substitute Gareth Tommons converted a cross.
Linfield hammered Glenavon 4-0 with Josh Carson, Aaron Burns (2) and Sean Ward grabbing the goals; Coleraine conceded to Crusaders after just 70 seconds when a Gavin Whyte ball from the right was deflected in by Stephen Douglas but took a share of the points thanks to a David Ogilby free-kick.
Kym Nelson scored the only goal of the game as Glentoran won away at Portadown, while Carrick Rangers and Ballinamallard United traded six goals in a 3-3 draw. Gareth McKeown, Miguel Chines and Thomas Murray were on target for Carrick, while Ryan Mayse and Adam Lecky (2) found the net for the Mallards.
