Danske Bank Premiership: Cliftonville 3 Warrenpoint Town 0
CLIFTONVILLE manager Paddy McLaughlin praised his team’s second-half attitude after the Reds comfortably disposed of Warrenpoint at Solitude on Saturday.
Thomas Maguire opened the scoring from the spot after 10 minutes for Cliftonville but, at half-time, McLaughlin was keen to impress on his players that the game was still very much in the balance. His words had an immediate impact as Ryan Curran and Joe Gormley both netted for the Reds within minutes of the restart.
“At half-time, we spoke about making sure we went out to get the next goal,” McLaughlin said.
“We had got off to a good start but Warrenpoint came into the game in a big way and the second goal was going to be crucial because, if they got it, they’d have something to build on whereas us going 2-0 up would have put us in a strong position to go on and get the points.
“We started the second-half really quickly and ended up scoring twice in a couple of minutes to put ourselves in control and that’s down to the players for how they went about their jobs.”
Cliftonville could have had more only for the woodwork to deny Curran a second, but there was a sour note to the afternoon when Michael McCrudden was forced off through injury to join a growing list at Solitude.
“It’s unbelievable what we’re going through at the minute,” said McLaughlin of the injury crisis as he prepares his side for another league game at Dungannon Swifts tomorrow night.
“Joe [Gormley] was carrying a wee bit of a niggle, so we started him on the bench and I thought McCrudden and [Ryan] Currany had been linking up well at the start of the game.
“Michael has to go off and we’ve brought Joe on probably earlier than we would have liked, then his own injury flared up again a wee bit towards the end, but I’m hopeful both of them should be okay for Dungannon on Tuesday night.”
Elsewhere on Saturday, league leaders Linfield maintained their 100 per cent record with a 2-1 win at Portadown, while Larne dropped their first points of the season in a scoreless draw against Glentoran. Glenavon and Coleraine played out a thrilling 4-4 draw at Mourneview and Crusaders also scored four in a big win at Ballymena. Early strugglers Carrick Rangers and Dungannon played out a 0-0 stalemate at Taylor’s Avenue.
