Rodney McAree rues ‘lapses in concentration’ after first defeat to Cliftonville

​The Glens found themselves two goals down inside the opening 35 minutes as Sean Moore struck twice at Solitude.

McAree was left frustrated by the manner of those goals and blamed 'lapses in concentration' as Moore was given too much room to find the back of the net.

"I think we gave ourselves too much to do in the first half," he said. "I think for coming off a run of results that we had, we didn't show enough belief in the first half and we were a little bit stand-offish.

"When we were stand-offish on two occasions, the ball went into the back of the net through Sean Moore.

"I wasn't happy with how we played in the first-half but we weren't far away as we hit the post, Niall McGinn was denied in an one-on-one position, and Shay McCartan sliced wide when in the six-yard box.

"We weren't too far away but two lapses in concentration in terms of being close to an attacking player to stop a shot has cost us massively.

"When you play against the big clubs and the tough games, you can't give yourself a mountain to climb.

"And ultimately we did that."

Terry Devlin's goal gave Glentoran hope five minutes into the second half but McAree was left ruing his side's lack of attacking threat thereafter.

"We tried to regroup at half-time and challenge ourselves to win the second half," he continued.

"I thought we won the second-half comfortably enough and we had a few little half chances and lots of the ball, but we didn't work Nathan Gartside enough.

"In terms of intensity, tempo and belief, we showed much more in the second half than we did in the first.

"You're standing on the sidelines thinking you want to change systems and get two upfront as quickly as you can.

"You were very reluctant to make any changes at all because we were well on top and it looked like it was going to pan into a game that we could get something out of.

"So we didn't want to complicate ourselves by making those changes.

"We did everything in our power to try and get something out of the game.

"But unfortunately, it hasn't happened for us."