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Match Report

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Glentoran today suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Cliftonville, as Alan McDonald's tough December took a turn for the worse.

The afternoon got off to a disastrous start, when Colin Nixon misqueued a clearance to gift the opening goal to Chris Scannell. Scannell, George McMullan and Mark Holland would add further goals for the home side, with Gary Hamilton netting a brace for the Glens, but it was too little, too late to salvage any much-needed points from the game.

The match had started quite promisingly, and the Reds goalkeeper was called in to action early to save low from a Michael Halliday header.

But the game had barely found a rhythm when Cliftonville broke the deadlock on 10 minutes.

The match immediately heated up, as the home team tried to muscle out the visitors, with heavy and reckless tackles flying in on Jason Hill, Jamie McGovern and David Scullion, with little being done to clamp down on the challenges.

But the Glens shook that off and clawed their way back in to the game, thanks to a Gary Hamilton free-kick.

Hamilton had raced clear through on goal, and was cynically hauled to the ground to win the free. Somehow, the official decided to produce only a yellow card, but Hamilton stepped up to curl in a sweet effort to level the scores.

Half chances came and went at each end, with neither goalkeeper being tested, but on 39 minutes, Cliftonville were handed another simple opportunity, and made the Glens pay.

A long ball into the Glentoran box seemed to be heading straight to Nixon to clear, but the defender's header went straight to the feet of Mark Holland, who lifted the ball over the advancing Morris to restore the home team's lead.

Sean Ward would see a right footed volley fly just wide of the target before the break, as the Glens tried to stay in the game.

But just 10 minutes into the second half, Cliftonville seemed to seal the 3 points. As they broke quickly, Nixon backed off, allowing the forward to pick his shot. Elliott Morris produced a good save, but was unable to get to the follow-up as Scannell tapped in his second of the afternoon.

A bad afternoon got worse as George McMullan scored the goal of the day, with a fine volley that gave Morris no chance at all.

Gary Hamilton netted a late second, but it was never going to be enough on this day.

Alan McDonald has now been left with the difficult task of lifting the team for the traditional Big Two Boxing Day fixture, after suffering the heaviest domestic defeat since taking over in The Oval hot seat.

Courtesy of
Russell Pritchard/
PRESSEYE