Cliftonville young guns Calvin McCurry and Thomas Maguire draw praise from Paddy McLaughlin

A clash with defending Mid-Ulster Intermediate League champions Hanover offered the current Danske Bank Premiership leaders an opportunity to reshuffle the pack off the back of a gruelling festive schedule.

However, Reds boss Paddy McLaughlin opted for just four changes to his starting side - with two grabbing the spotlight in the final third as Thomas Maguire and Calvin McCurry offered evidence of continued success for the in-house strikers’ production line.

Maguire kicked off and closed the scoring - the 20-year-old’s goals serving to bookend efforts by Aaron Donnelly, Joe Gormley, Ronan Doherty and Ryan Curran.

McCurry’s gametime has been carefully managed by McLaughlin to date and the 18-year-old completed 90 senior minutes for the first time on Saturday.

“I thought Calvin McCurry was superb, he led the line alongside Joe Gormley and then, later, Thomas Maguire,” said McLaughlin. “We finished the game with a really young side, which is brilliant for the club.

“The gametime was good for the young boys’ experience and development as the future of the club.

“Calvin was the pick - his touch, vision, awareness and movement were excellent.

“He was in on goal a few times and only some great saves or last-ditch defending prevented him from getting the goal to cap his performance off.

“Sometimes young players might score goals off easy chances but don’t contribute or learn a lot from a senior game.

“Calvin was the complete opposite - he didn’t score but his performance was excellent, with his protection of the ball against bigger and stronger men an example of how he can learn so much from those 90 minutes.

“He has a bright future and is, hopefully, here for a long time.

“Thomas’ gameskills are getting better week-on-week, he knows he has a long way to go but is playing as well as ever in my time here.

“He has the potential to be one of the finest strikers in the division.

“We need young players pushing to get into the first team to keep the senior players on their toes.

“We always wanted to go as strong as possible in terms of the line-up, it’s been over 40 years now since the club last won the Irish Cup so we would never devalue the competition in any way.

“We also would never underestimate Hanover or treat them with any less than respect.

“From keeping an eye on Hanover we knew the potential for a banana skin so had to protect ourselves from that outcome and I’m delighted with six goals and a clean sheet.”