Danske Bank Premiership Round-up (February 13 2017)
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
Cliftonville bounced back after defeat against Ballymena United on Saturday in the Bet Mclean League Cup semi-final with a win away to Warrenpoint Town on Tuesday evening.
This result means that the Reds are now level on points with fourth placed side Linfield.
First-half goals from Jay Donnelly and new signing Conor McDonald, previously of Dundalk, and Warrenpoint had put Cliftonville in a commanding position.
However, the Point did get back into the game thanks to Martin Murray who pulled a goal back for the hosts with a neat lob over Cliftonville keeper Brain Neeson.
Barry Gray’s side then restored their two-goal advantage seven minutes before half-time thanks to Joe Gormley’s 22nd goal of the season sealing the victory for the Reds.
Cliftonville manager Gray said after the match, “I think we can be happy with our work, in the first-half, we were really good although we were disappointed to concede the goal in the fashion that we did, but it was important to we got the three points.”
“We didn’t get everything our way, I think we can be relatively happy with what we did.”
Glentoran needed a last gasp winner to claim all three points against strugglers Carrick Rangers to move into the top six thanks to Marcus Kane’s header.
There was controversy early on at Carrick as the home side hit the woodwork twice, first through Darren Henderson and then Andrew Mooney, but his effort appeared to have crossed the line.
Within a minute, Glentoran took the lead through the impressive Robbie McDaid as he tucked the ball away into the bottom corner of the net with ease.
Carrick Rangers equalised six minutes before the break as a defensive lapse from Callum Birney saw him fail to clear a Mooney cross before the ball fell to Henderson and he lashed the ball into the net leaving Morris only a spectator.
The home side were awarded a penalty, when the experienced Ross Redman brought down Lee Chapman however Henderson’s effort crashed off the post and away to safety.
Dylan Davidson who has impressed the Oval faithful this season hit the bar and in the last minute of normal time Kane headed into the net following a James Knowles free-kick t move the Glens into sixth place ahead of Ballymena United.
Glenavon who have gone nine games unbeaten since the start of 2018 are now six points ahead of champions Linfield and Cliftonville in the race for third place after they thrashed Ards 6-1 at the Bangor Fuels Arena.
It was a fourth straight defeat for Ards and manager Colin Nixon said, “We were really poor again, defending was really poor and its another shocking display by us.”
“Defensively we’re all at sea at the minute. We were doing so well earlier in the season, which is what got us up the table ,but we need to improve on that as quickly as possible.”
2017 / 18 Results and Fixtures
