Glentoran suffered a disappointing 2-nil home defeat to Cliftonville in today's Danske Bank Premiership game. Playing into the strong wind the Glens were on the front foot early on with Ruaidhri Donnelly in particular looking dangerous against his former club. Although dominating possession there was over half an hour played before the first clear cut chance. Donnelly was the instigator and his cross from the left picked out Elvio Van Overbeek. Van Overbeek beat the first defender but then saw his attempt cleared for a corner.
There was another great opportunity for Van Overbeek minutes before the interval when he connected sweetly with a ball into the penalty area. The goal bound volley was brilliantly kept out though by Richard Brush in the visitors' goal. Glentoran, who had controlled the first half, continued to press and in first half stoppage time eventually worked the ball to Marcus Kane on the edge of the area. The skipper couldn't keep his shot down though and it was goalless at the break.
The Glens fell behind just 2 minutes into the second half. McCrudden went past both McClean and Kane far too easliy before slipping the ball to Chris Curran. The Reds captain went past Gallagher before slipping the ball past Elliott Morris. On 55 minutes the Glens top scorer this season, Robbie McDaid had a great chance to level things up but he headed straight at Brush when well placed. Chris Gallagher, whose only previous Glentoran goal came against Cliftonville earlier in the season, then tried his luck from 25 yards but the ball whistled past the post.
Just after the hour mark Cliftonville doubled their lead and again the goal was due to sloppy defending on the left from the Glens. A long hopeful ball forward seemed to be going out of play but Ryan Curran chased it down, getting the better of both McClean and Kane before sliding it past Morris. The Glens made a couple of changes to try to get back into the game but their decision making and the quality of their set pieces was poor and Brush had a relatively untroubled second half. Indeed it might have been worse had McCrudden taken another chance on 85 minutes.
Full-time: Glentoran 0-2 Cliftonville
Photographs by Joe Burns (JB Photography)
Glentoran: Morris, Marron, Kane (c), Peers (O'Connor), McClean, Clucas, Nasseri, Gallagher, Donnelly , Van Overbeek (Matulevicius 68) & McDaid (Mitchell 77).