NIFL Premiership
Cliftonville 1
Coleraine 0
At Solitude
RORY HALE’s first half strike saw Cliftonville edge out Coleraine and make it four league
games unbeaten with a 1-0 win at Solitude on Saturday afternoon.
Hale popped up with the game's key moment, sweeping home from Keevan Hawthrone’s cross to seal all three points and move his side into the top half of the Premiership table to the delight of boss Jim Magilton.
“It’s up there with one of our best performances,” Magilton reflected.
“You’re coming against the league leaders with so much quality in their team. We worked so hard this week tactically to nullify their threats, and I thought we did that to a large extent, but they have that much quality in their team that the game can turn on its head on a given second.
“I just thought from minute one to minute ninety-six our attention to detail, our focus, our determination without the ball was so great and they all deserve credit for that.
"They’ve worked so hard.
“We talked about a month ago about getting back to basics and clean sheets and we’re
building on that momentum. The goal we scored, if you look at the goal you won’t see a
better goal this week because of where it started, how it was finished and the composure.
“I’m delighted, I’m so happy for the players but it is just one game. We need to build on
momentum, but the confidence that should give them is huge. Belief should be growing
because we believe in them and we’ve never lost that belief in them. Hopefully, they can kick on."
Eric McWoods was in fine form
Magilton had to make one enforced change to the XI that began their last outing, a 2-0 win over Dungannon Swifts. Suspension ruled out Harry Wilson as Conor Pepper came into the starting line-up.
Cliftonville were first to threaten when Jonny Addis' pass picked out Eric McWoods, he forced his way towards goal but couldn’t keep his effort down.
On the quarter hour mark Joel Cooper let fly with a dipping shot that Peter Morrison did well to keep out, springing low to his left to parry.
The hosts felt they should have had a penalty midway through the half when Eric McWoods' cross hit the hand of Kodi Lyons-Foster in the area but referee Steven Gregg was unmoved by the subsequent appeals.
Coleraine’s best chance arrived after 25 minutes. Joel Cooper held the ball up at the edge of the box before slipping a pass to Matthew Shevlin and his layoff teed up Glackin to fire into the side netting.
Just before the half hour mark McWoods flashed over after Tomas Lavery laid off Addis’
cross to the American.
The deadlock was broken five minutes before the break and fell to Cliftonville. In a fantastic move that started at the the back, Jonny Addis’ played a pass to Ryan Curran and he laid off to Joe Sheridan. A fantastic overlapping pass found Keevan Hawthorne and his low cross was swept home by Rory Hale to give his side a 1-0 lead at the interval.
The Reds began the second period on the front foot and missed various opportunities to
double their lead. A mazy run from Hale ended up with the goalscorer's shot tailing off target. A route one pass from Jonny Addis then released McWoods whose cut back found Ryan Curran and Rowan McDonald cleared his shot off the line.
Jack Keaney then latched onto a quickly taken Hale free kick but Aidan Harris made himself big to deny the centre half.
Coleraine’s first chance off the second period came after Jack Keaney caught substitute
Zane Okoro, though Will Patching’s free kick was straight at Peter Morrison. The Bannsiders were beginning to see more joy in the wide areas but the final delivery was
easy for Morrison to gather on several occasions.
Substitute Joe Gormley had the chance to wrap up the three-points when McWoods squared to him and Gormley skipped through a couple of challenges but shot wide at the vital moment.
As the game ticked towards injury time Matthew Shevlin hooked the ball into the area and Kodi Lyons-Foster stabbed wide. It was back to the wall for Cliftonville in added time, however they stood firm and survived a late scare when Oliver Devlin miscued in the box as Hale’s first half strike was the difference at the conclusion.
CLIFTONVILLE: Morrison, Casey, Addis, Keaney, Lavery, Pepper, Sheridan (Barr 81’),
Hale, Hawthorne (Bermingham 86’), McWoods (Falls 86’), Curran (Gormley 72’).
COLERAINE: Harris, Jarvis (Devlin 72’), Boyle (Doherty 61’), Lyons-Foster, McGregor
(Okoro 46’), Patching (McManus 80’), Shevlin, Cooper, Glackin, Dunne, McDonald (Kane
61’).
REFEREE: Steven Gregg
