Ryan Catney’s 90th minute goal gave Cliftonville a thoroughly deserved win at the Oval this afternoon as Glentoran’s poor run of home form continued.

 
Right from the off it was the visitors who dominated play with Catney pulling the strings in midfield and Stephen Garrett’s crosses from the right causing the Glentoran defence all sorts of problems.  Cliftonville’s attacking players were finding plenty of space in the Glentoran box and their best chances all came from headers.  On 14 minutes John Convery should have done better from Martin Donnelly’s corner while Rory Donnelly had three chances with his head in the first half, the last of these after some superb flowing football through the Cliftonville midfield.  The usually reliable Chris Scannell had probably the best of Cliftonville’s chances when he had acres of space from another of Garrett’s crosses but put the header wide.  The home side didn’t create a decent chance until the 36th minute when Andy Waterworth found Gary Hamilton on the edge of the Cliftonville area, he laid the ball off to Stephen Carson who had found space on the left and his low curling effort was well saved by Cliftonville goalkeeper Ryan Brown.

Scott Young decided to shake things up at the break, bringing on Richard Gibson and Richard Clarke in place of Darren Boyce and Stephen Carson, but the change of personnel had little effect on the shape of the game.  Two minutes into the second half a defensive mix up between Sean Ward and Elliott Morris almost let in Stephen Garrett while such was Cliftonville’s dominance that veteran defenders Liam Fleming and Barry Holland were able to get in shots that flew just wide of the mark.  Colin Nixon had a chance to snatch a goal against the run of play on 62 minutes but his header cleared the cross bar and a minute later Stephen Garrett should have done better when he was sent clear by Chris Scannell but his shot was well beaten away by Elliott Morris.  On 63 minutes Martin Donnelly was fouled by David Holland right on the edge of the area, took the free kick himself and the shot just cleared the cross bar.

With 20 minutes left Glentoran’s hopes of holding out for a point took a blow when they found themselves down to ten men.  Andy Waterworth, having been booked earlier in the half for a foul on Ryan Catney, made an ill-judged challenge on Eamonn Seydak and referee Stephen Weatherall had little option to produce the second yellow and subsequent red.  As is so often the case the depleted side then seemed to raise their game and forced a number of fruitless corners, Ciaran Martyn coming closest with a near post header from Gary Hamilton’s delivery two minutes from time.  Cliftonville substitute Joe Gormley had a great chance to give the Reds the lead from a Garrett cross, this time from the left, but his close range effort flew over the bar.  At this point the visiting supporters may have thought that it wasn’t to be their day but with the watch just short of the 90 minutes Cliftonville substitute George McMullan found space on the right.  His cross was cleared but only as far as Ryan Catney whose 20 yard volley flew past Elliott Morris’s left hand into the bottom corner sparking understandable jubilation on the City End terrace.

So the euphoria of last week’s win over Linfield is now well and truly dissipated and both players and supporters will be happy that the next League game is away from home at Shamrock Park next Saturday.

Glentoran
Elliott Morris, Jaimie McGovern, Sean Ward, Colin Nixon, Jason Hill, Andy Waterworth, Ciaran Martyn, David Howland, Stephen Carson (sub Richard Clarke 45 mins), Gary Hamilton, Darren Boyce ( sub Richard Gibson 45 mins)

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