Larne 2-0 Cliftonville
From Kevin Herron at Inver Park
MATTY LUSTY bagged a first half double as Cliftonville fell to 2-0 defeat to Champions Larne at Inver Park on Tuesday evening.
Lutsy struck from range before the quarter hour mark and doubled his and the Inver Reds tally before the break to condemn Cliftonville to their third defeat of the season.
Manager Jim Magilton conceded his team were dominated in the opening period and was frustrated that the hosts didn’t have to work for their goals.
“The first half, we got totally dominated,” Magilton reflected.
“We turned over the ball so often- especially early on in the game, and in all honesty Larne didn’t have to work particularly hard for their goals.
“Our two centre halves dropped off, Matty Lusty had so much time and space, he picked out his goals, two decent finishes but our lack of intensity - knowing that when you come here you have to match and one thing that you have to stand up to and for 45 minutes we were second best all over the pitch”.
Magilton made three changes from the weekend win against Carrick Rangers. Captain Rory Hale dropped to the bench along with Oliver Samuels and Daniel O’Connor, whilst there were starts for Joel Thompson, Luke Conlon and Shaun Leppard.
Larne began promisingly with Matty Lusty picking the ball up in the wide position and playing a pass to Sean Graham whose attempted cross was blocked by Ben Quinn and the second attempt took a ricochet and was cleared.
Joel Thompson picked out Quinn with a crossfield pass but the goal scoring winger's cross was too deep to cause Rohan Ferguson any problems.
The deadlock was broken after 13 minutes when Larne captain Tomas Cosgrove played a pass infield to Lusty who let fly from range and PJ Morrison was helpless as the ball flashed past him into the net to open the scoring for the home side.
Larne’s Mathew Ridley with Cliftonville’s Shaun Leppard
Cliftonville responded positively as Liam McStravick flashed a shot wide from the edge of the box and a deflected Joel Thompson attempt forced a corner and it took a few attempts for the hosts to eventually clear their lines.
Larne ramped up the pressure in pursuit of a second. Paul O’Neill was slipped through and his dinked attempt landed on the roof of the net with Morrison beaten.
A low Tomas Cosgrove cross then found O’Neill and his sidefooted attempt was claimed by Morrison with Sean Graham glancing past the post a minute later.
The hosts relentless pursuit paid dividends in the 38th minute when Lusty doubled his tally for the evening.
Dean McMaster gave away possession cheaply and Lusty weaved his way into the edge of the box before picking his spot low in the corner to make it 2-0 at the break.
Cliftonville began the second period brighter but Matthew Ridley blocked a goal-bound Liam McStravick attempt.
At the other end Matty Lusty was unable to connect with a pinpoint Cosgrove cross and on the hour mark Ridley rose highest to meet a corner from the left, though PJ Morrison denied the centre half.
Morrison was almost caught out with a slack pass that Paul O’Neill intercepted and laid off to Lusty, however the Reds shot stopper redeemed himself.
With little under a quarter of an hour remaining Joe Gormley felt he should have been awarded a penalty after feeling contact in the box but referee Mark Dillon was uninterested.
Substitute James Simpson saw his shot take a deflection and flash past the post late on though there was no further scoring as the Champions ran out 2-0 winners.
LARNE: Ferguson, Ridley, Donnelly, Gallagher, O’Neill (Millar 73’), Graham, Doherty (Simpson 82’), Cosgrove, Sloan (McEneff 73’), Bent, Lusty (Gibson 82’).
CLIFTONVILLE: Morrison, Bannon, McClelland, Leppard, Conlon (Samuels 82’), Thompson (Gormley 66’), Sheridan (Hale 66’), McMaster, Quinn (Wightman 46’), Healy (Campbell 66’), McStravick.
REFEREE: Mark Dillon
