NIFL Premiership
Cliftonville 4
Larne 2
At Solitude
CLIFTONVILLE secured their third league win on the spin for the first time this season after a 4-2 win over Larne at Solitude on Friday evening.
Rory Hale’s quickfire double had the Reds in control and Shaun Leppard’s headed goal extended their advantage and looked to have sealed all three-points a minute after the hour mark.
However, Larne fought back as Dan Bent dispatched from the spot after Matty Lusty was felled by Joel Thompson and Lusty, lobbed home a second with ten minutes remaining.
The champions were unable to complete the comeback as Rhyss Campbell raced clear to make sure of the win with the final kick of an absorbing contest, much to the delight of his manager Jim Magilton who was full of praise for the character and resilience on show from his side.
“At 3-0, tactically we were so good,” Magilton reflected. “At 3-0 it was a near perfect performance, but when you recognise the quality of the opposition you know that there are going to be some nervy moments, and they provided that.
“We started to have a little wobble, but we stuck to our guns again and showed great resilience and great character. So many fantastic individual performances, but credit goes to the team and the lads that came off the bench too. It was a collective performance.
“They should be immensely proud of their performance and their fitness levels again were through the roof. It is a credit to them. We went through a little wobble, people got a little bit ahead of themselves.
“We don’t seek approval, we knuckle down, we go again and we have great belief in them. It’s no secret our turnover is always quite high. It takes players to bed into the league, and once they have done that they have shown great quality and we have got our just rewards”.
Magilton made two changes from Tuesday evening's win over Bangor in the semi final of the County Antrim Shield.
Shaun Leppard returned after injury and Luke Conlon, replacing Kyle McClelland – who dropped to the bench – and Ollie Samuels.
Larne were first to threaten through a fiercely struck Matty Lusty shot that flashed over the bar.
The deadlock was broken after six minutes and fell to Cliftonville. Joe Sheridan scooped a pass over the top that Rory Hale controlled and lifted over Rohan Ferguson and into the net for his third goal of the season.
A quickfire second almost arrived when Brian Healy threaded a pass through to Ben Quinn whose low shot was held by Ferguson.
Hale doubled his and the Reds advantage by the eighth minute. Ben Quinn nipped the ball away from Matthew Ridley and Hale’s snapshot from the edge of the box went underneath the stretch of Ferguson and into the net.
Champions Larne were shell-shocked and almost hit back when Dylan Sloan slipped the ball to Lusty in the area, though he dragged his shot off target.
Cliftonville could have extended their lead. Dean McMaster whipped in a corner from the right and Ben Quinn glanced over. Luke Conlon then released Joe Sheridan and his cross was flicked goalwards by Hale and had to be diverted behind by Cricky Gallagher- though the resulting corner came to nothing.
PJ Morrison had a relatively quiet opening half. On the stroke of half time the Scot did have to hold onto a Dylan Sloan header after Tomas Cosgrove’s cross was flicked on by Matthew Ridley as Hale’s double was the difference at the interval.
Tempers flared between the sides late on
Cliftonville started the second period in the ascendancy with Brian Healy feeding Liam McStravick whose cross was met by Hale ahead of Daniel Bent, though Rohan Ferguson held onto his goalbound header.
PJ Morrison held onto a low drive from substitute Leroy Millar at the other end but it was the hosts that found their third just after the hour mark.
Dean McMaster’s corner from the right was met by the head of Shaun Leppard whose powerful header found the corner of the net.
Larne had a glimmer of hope in the 71st minute when subsitute Joel Thompson tripped Matty Lusty and Shane Andrews pointed to the spot.
Dan Bent seized responsability and tucked the spot kick low into the bottom right corner to make it 3-1.
The comeback gained momentum as the Inver Reds halved the deficit with ten minutes remaining.
Matthew Ridley’s flicked header dropped for James Simpson to lift a pass over the top and Matty Lusty’s delicate lob over PJ Morrison dropped underneath the bar and went in despite the best efforts of Shaun Leppard on the line.
Gary Haveron’s side pushed for what looked at one stage an unlikely share of the spoils, but they were caught out late-on.
Joe Gormley fed a through ball that Rhyss Campbell latched onto, he bore down on Rohan Ferguson’s goal and powered a shot home with the last kick of the game to seal a memorable 4-2 win, their first over the East Antrim side in the league since New Years Day 2023.
CLIFTONVILLE: Morrison, Wightman, Bannon, Leppard, Conlon, McMaster, Sheridan, Hale (Thompson 69’), Quinn (Campbell 37’), Healy (Gormley 81’), McStravick (McClelland 81’).
LARNE: Ferguson, Ridley, Donnelly, Gallagher (Randall 69’), O’Neill (O’Hara 46’), Graham, Doherty (Millar 46’), Cosgrove, Sloan (Simpson 69’), Bent, Lusty (McKendry 83’).
REFEREE: Shane Andrews
