NI Premiership Round-up - Week 21
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A capacity crowd of just less than 3000 watched Cliftonville extend their lead at the top of the Danske Bank Irish Premiership to nine points with a hard fought 1-0 victory over North Belfast rivals, Crusaders.
Normally the Boxing Day fixtures are dominated by the traditional battle between the “Big Two” of Linfield and Glentoran but this year the focus was directed firmly to the north of city as the top two in the league met for the second time this season, the first encounter going convincingly Crusaders way with a comprehensive 3-1 victory back in October.
Since then the Reds have embarked on a nine match unbeaten run and headed into the clash with their nearest rivals in fine form, with Joe Gormley providing a potent threat up front as his partnership with Liam Boyce powered Cliftonville further ahead in the race for the title.
The prolific striker had to settle for a place on the bench, as he was carrying a knock, and Diarmuid O’Carroll started alongside Boyce for the visit of Crusaders, who themselves had not tasted defeat in their last six league outings.
It was Crusaders who had the best of the chances in a dour first half and can count themselves very unlucky not to go in at the break a goal to the good when Gary McCutcheon pounced on Conor Devlin’s weak parry to prod home but was flagged by the linesman as offside, a call which seemed dubious on repeat viewing.
The Setanta Cup holders were guilty of fluffing a number of chances during a scrappy first half with Timmy Adamson the chief culprit as he blasted wide with only Devlin to beat just before the break.
The big striker was proving a thorn in the home side’s defence all afternoon and showed he was not just a physical presence early in the second half with a sublime piece of control to engineer the space for a shot which, unfortunately for him, went straight at Devlin and was eventually scrambled to safety.
Colin Coates, who bore the brunt of the home fans ire for much of the game, had a great chance to silence his detractors when he rose majestically in the box and seemed poised to apply a trademark bullet header but his effort, uncharacteristically, flew over Devlin’s crossbar.
Gormley was introduced with twenty minutes to go and he soon added much needed thrust to Cliftonvile’s attack, attempting to pick out Boyce when possibly a shot was the better option.
The breakthrough came on 80 minutes when Gormley controlled a Ryan Catney pass and then sprinted on to Barry Johnston’s through ball which he calmly dispatched to send the home crowd into raptures.
The result means that Cliftonville are now nine points in front of their North Belfast rivals, with a game in hand, and in a good position to claim their first title since 1998.
The battle of the “Big Two” went the way of Linfield but they had to come from behind as ten-man Glentoran took the lead through Jay Magee on 21 minutes, despite having Stephen McAlorum sent to the line for an off the ball incident with Michael Gault with only five minutes gone.
The Champions were dominant for the second half with only a string of magnificent Elliot Morris saves holding Glentoran’s slender advantage as the game moved into the last quarter.
However, the champions did get on terms 16 minutes from time as Mark McAllister drilled home from six yards after Morris had done well to parry an Albert Watson header.
The winner came four minutes later when substitute Ross Clark prodded home to gain Linfield the three points which helped them leap frog their great rivals into fourth position in the league.
Shamrock Rovers first round Setanta Cup opponents, Coleraine, made it three wins on the bounce with a 2-0 win over struggling Ballymena United in which Curtis Allen bagged his twelfth goal of the season while Portadown ran out 2-0 winners over Glenavon in the mid-Ulster derby.
The clash between the basement clubs saw Lisburn Distillery draw 3-3 with Donegal Celtic and a Craig Hill goal three minutes into injury time against Dungannon Swifts meant that Ballinamallard United enter the New Year in the top six of the Premier League.
