Jim Magilton praises 'goal hungry' Ronan Hale as striker brings season tally to 13 in 16 matches with brace against Ballymena United

Hale opened the scoring in the 33rd minute by dispatching a penalty and doubled the home side’s advantage on the hour mark, bringing his personal Premiership tally for the season to 10 in 14 games, while the ex-Birmingham City ace also scored a hat-trick in this month’s Irish Cup triumph over Coleraine.

Ronan Doherty secured the points with a moment of magic, curling in an effort from range to help Cliftonville keep pace with current league leaders Linfield and second-placed Larne, who also both won on Saturday.

They currently trail David Healy’s Blues by eight points and the reigning champions by four, but Magilton’s men have a game in hand to play against Glentoran at the start of February.

If last season’s Golden Boot winner Hale can maintain his superb goalscoring form, it could go a long way to helping Cliftonville battle for Gibson Cup glory right to the end.

“Ronan Hale is goal hungry,” Magilton told the club’s website. “Once he gets a sight of goal, there’s only one thing on his mind and he’s desperate to score goals. He’s done great for us and we’re delighted with him and we hope it continues.

“Then we had a great strike in what was probably an indifferent afternoon for Olly but, again, the quality and standards of his performances have been so high and so good.”

Cliftonville were without talisman Rory Hale, who has scored seven goals and provided 10 assists this season, but still celebrated a 13th clean sheet and their tally of 58 team goals can only be bettered by Linfield, who have netted one more.

The Reds have conceded just six times in 13 home league games, collecting 30 points in the process, and despite not feeling like his side were at their very best, Magilton was delighted to maintain winning momentum.

“It keeps us on that forward momentum and it’s very important for us to win games,” he added. “I’m delighted with the result but it was a bit of a stop-start performance.

"These lads have set standards, very high standards, and when we drop below them, we get upset and they get upset – and that’s a good thing. We’ve come this far into the season and we know we can play better, but it was really important to win the game.

“We just weren’t at our fluid best and we didn’t create as many opportunities as we have done, but there’s two teams and we have to credit Ballymena because they played well, gave us problems and they stopped that fluidity.

“We’re going to have little dips. It’s important when we have that dip that we see out games and we saw out the game today. On another day, we’ll play better and maybe not win 3-0, but winning 3-0 at home is important for us and it’s important we keep building on the momentum.”