Toals County Antrim Shield, Quarter-final
Cliftonville 4
Linfield 1
CLIFTONVILLE booked their place in the semi-final of the Toal’s County Antrim Shield after seeing off 10-man Linfield 4-1 in Tuesday evening's quarter-final clash at Solitude.
Rory Hale thumped the hosts in front and youngster Keevan Hawthorne doubled his side's advantage before Callumn Morrison halved the deficit.
No sooner had the Blues given themselves a lifeline and it was taken away through Chris McKee’s red card in first half injury time.
The second period was rather one-sided as an early Ryan Curran strike was followed up by a Thomas Lavery header to ensure that Cliftonville advanced to the last four and will make the trip to the Ballymena Showgrounds in the semi-final in November.
Reds boss Jim Magilton is hopeful that victory can prove a confidence boost for his players and noticed an aggression that he felt they were lacking in recent weeks.
“Hopefully it is a massive confidence boost,” said Magilton. “I thought from minute one to how we finished the game, I thought we were really aggressive in all aspects of the game.
“We caused Linfield problems and our front two started that. They set the tone and that spread through the whole team. Young Joe (Sheridan) and Keevo (Keevan Hawthorne), fantastic displays from them two young lads.
“When you come up against a Linfield side, you know that they are going to present massive problems. We kind of nullified that threat and all in all, it was a pleasing night for us”.
Following their damaging weekend defeat at the hands of Larne, Magilton rang the changes with only four survivors from that defeat in the form of Odhran Casey, Jack Keaney, Rory Hale and Harry Wilson.
Lewis Ridd occupied the goalkeeping position and there were starts for youngsters Keevan Hawthorne and Joe Sheridan and a front two of Eric McWoods and Ryan Curran.
Cliftonville started with intent as Rory Hale’s early corner was partially cleared and broke to Odhran Casey whose hooked follow-up was off target,
They took the lead on the 12th minute, after an initial corner from the left was cleared behind, the second from Keevan Hawthorne was flicked on by Jonny Addis and cleared as far as the edge of the box where Rory Hale thumped home to make it 1-0.
Blues keeper David Walsh was quick off his line to cut out a possible Eric McWoods opening after Joe Sheridan had ran onto a fantastic bowled pass by Lewis Ridd as the hosts tried to extend their advantage.
Midway through the first half Sean Robertson departed through a hamstring injury as the Reds injury concerns began to mount up again.
Christopher McKee was shown a red card for Linfield
However, the Solitude side doubled their lead after the half hour mark. Charlie Allen failed to cut out Ryan Curran’s square pass and Keevan Hawthorne capitalised with a fantastic shot across David Walsh’s goal and in for his first senior goal for the club.
Eric McWoods was denied by Walsh as Cliftonville continued to threaten and McWoods felt he should have had a penalty when he went down under the challenge of Dane McCullough in the area, but referee Evan Boyce was not interested.
Just before the break Linfield halved the deficit when Callumn Morrison slipped a shot underneath Lewis Ridd after running onto Sam Taylor’s pass.
The Blues were dealt a blow in first half added time when Chris McKee was shown a straight red card for a lunge on Rory Hale in the last meaningful action of a busy opening period.
Cliftonville immediately went about trying to make the most of their numerical advantage in the early stages of the second half.
Eric McWoods flashed the ball across the face of goal but it evaded Rory Hale and Jack Keaney then let fly with an effort from distance that scaled the bar.
Cliftonville struck four goals at solitude on Tuesday night
Cliftonville would restore their two-goal advantage in the 48th minute when Ryan Curran controlled a through pass from Hale and slid the ball beyond the reach of Walsh.
Three minutes later it was 4-1 after Hawthorne’s deep cross was nodded off the post by Thomas Lavery for his first goal for the club.
There were an abundance of opportunities to further extend the advantage as the game progressed though the match was well beyond doubt as the Reds booked their spot in the last four and a trip to Ballymena United – the side they defeated when last tasted Shield success in 2020.
CLIFTONVILLE: Ridd, Casey (Leppard 63’), Addis, Keaney, Robertson (Lavery 20’), Wilson, Sheridan, Hale (McCay 63’), Hawthorne, McWoods (Falls 74’),Curran (Gormley 74’).
LINFIELD: Walsh, East (Fitzpatrick 46’), Whiteside, Allen (Miller 74’), McKee, Yates (Baird 46’), Archer, Brown, Taylor (Roscoe-Byrne 60’), McCullough, Morrison (McGee 60’).
REFEREE: Evan Boyce
