Left-back Aaron Donnelly admits that the move which led to his first ever Cliftonville goal was scripted on the training ground. 

The 20-year-old opened the scoring in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Glenavon from a short corner routine and an angled effort which caught out Craig Hyland. It was the second time in a matter of minutes that they tried that routine and Donnelly revealed their plan of action. 

“I’ll say it’s a shot because we’ve been working on it in training,” revealed Donnelly. 

“I decided to put it into an area where if the lads aren’t getting on the end of it then it’s going to work the ’keeper. I just tried to put into an area where hopefully one of the lads could flick it on, if not it does go in and thankfully it did. 

“We cut them out pretty early. Daniel (Kearns) should have scored from a similar scenario but the ’keeper made a great save so we just tried it again and it came off thankfully and we’re delighted.” 

Donnelly felt that they should have done better in a second period which saw them on the back foot having conceded early on but expected a tough game from the Lurgan Blues. 

“I definitely think we made it hard for ourselves,” he admits. 

“We tried to get the next goal to try and kill the game because 2-0 is still a tough score line. We tried to go out and get the next goal but they got it and had the momentum. At the end we held on and it was a good three points, but we probably could have did a bit better in the second-half.” 

“They’ve been on form recently. They were about eight unbeaten before the Portadown defeat last week. It was a tough game today and we knew we were going to be hard, so it was a good win.” 

Kris Lindsay’s appointment to the management team was one that went down well with Donnelly who believes it can only improve the team as a whole. 

“I think he did a great job at Dungannon Swifts,” reflected Donnelly. 

“Especially this year, they did really well against us down there. They beat us earlier on in the season and made it tough for us at the start of January. I thought he did great down there and it’s a great addition for us and is only going to improve us. It's brilliant.” 

Donnelly is just one of many first team regulars who has experienced a spell on the sideline this season through injury. 

He has chalked up 22 appearances in a defence which has chopped and changed more than any area across the pitch with most coming in the left-back position in the absence of Levi Ives and is keen to praise his team-mates for slotting in at crucial times. 

“The team this season has been through some bad injuries,” he acknowledges. 

“Most of them are coming in the back line, but everyone who has come in has been playing really well and doing their job. I’m just happy I’m playing at the end of the day.”