Danske Bank Premiership: Cliftonville 5 Portadown 0
CLIFTONVILLE manager Paddy McLaughlin believes the “desire” and “spirit” his players demonstrated in Saturday’s five-goal trouncing of Portadown was a fitting response to some of the criticism they have received of late.
Hampered by a string of injuries to key players, Cliftonville had lost three on the bounce in the Danske Bank Premiership, which included last Tuesday’s 4-0 defeat at the Ballymena Showgrounds. However, a Michael McCrudden hat-trick helped McLaughlin’s side to Saturday’s morale-boosting win at Solitude which leaves them three points off Crusaders in the European places.
“Nobody hurts more after losing games than the players,” said the Derry man.
“They put the work in during training and work their socks off in matches, so there’s no questioning how much defeat hurts them. I think we saw a response against Portadown, but it wasn’t just a response to the games that we’ve lost recently, it was a response to some of the criticism they’ve been on the end of.
“Nobody is above criticism and we certainly deserved some after the Ballymena game on Tuesday night, but a lot of what I read and heard about the players was very harsh and over the top at times.
“I can’t agree with some of the stuff that was said about them, but that’s something I’ve noticed – when it comes to Cliftonville, it doesn’t take much for the critics to come out,” McLaughlin added.
“I thought we were unlucky to lose in the manner that we did against Larne last weekend, conceding in the final minute of injury-time against a top side, and then obviously against Ballymena we were way off where we should have been. I think a few heads went down but, for this game, we focused on trying to get control of the ball and the game from early on and I think our desire and our spirit really came to the fore.”
McCrudden’s treble was his first league goals for Cliftonville since his January transfer from Derry City, with his previous two goals for the club both coming in knockout competitions, while substitute Dáire O'Connor struck twice late on to put the icing on the cake for the Reds. As for Portadown, who were returning to action for the first time in more than a fortnight due to pandemic-related suspensions, they are now without a win since the opening day of the season and have dropped to the foot of the table on goal difference.
“I’ve always known what Michael [McCrudden] is capable of,” McLaughlin said.
“I’m pleased for him to have got his goals because I know he gets frustrated when he’s not on the scoresheet and he cares about how the team is doing, so that’s going to be a massive lift for him, but I honestly don’t think I can single anyone out because everybody played so well. It was pretty much perfect from our point of view and exactly what we needed to do.”
Saturday was an incident-packed day all round in the Irish League, with Warrenpoint pulling off the shock of the season so far in the late kick-off at Milltown. Alan O’Sullivan and Kealan Dillon were on target for ’Point as they came back from a goal down to stun champions Linfield, who were going for a eighth league win in-a-row.
Glenavon also came back from a goal down at Mourneview Park against Crusaders to record a 3-1 win and prevent a sizable gap opening between the top three and the rest of the table. Matthew Fitzpatrick was among those on target for the Lurgan Blues.
Larne took full advantage of Linfield’s slip-up with a 2-0 win over Coleraine at the Showgrounds, Davy McDaid’s double sending the east Antrim men top. Glentoran, meanwhile, recorded their first win of the season with a 5-1 hammering of Dungannon Swifts at the Oval.
