Everything came to fruition in the second-half, beams Jim Magilton as Cliftonville earn home win over Dungannon Swifts
A half-time message by Jim Magilton asking his Cliftonville players to believe in themselves paid dividends as they netted two second-half goals to beat Dungannon Swifts at Solitude.
Both teams cancelled each other out in the first 45 minutes in north Belfast as Cathal McGinty was denied for the visitors, whilst at the other end, Ryan Curran couldn’t find a way beyond Declan Dunne in the pick of the chances.
However, defender Jonny Addis showed his ruthless edge in the other box to give the Reds the lead on 51 minutes as he flicked home a header from Rory Hale’s cross.
The game was then put beyond doubt as another defender showed the attackers how to do it on 69 minutes. A well-hit free-kick by Jack Keaney rolled into the bottom corner as Cliftonville moved up to 8th in the Premiership standings.
So, what was the message at the interval?
“Just the belief in us and our belief in how we play and impose ourselves more on the game,” Magilton responded.
"Trust each other with the ball, go and have the confidence to go and play.
"The first half was cagey at times, I thought their system probably had more effect on the game than ours.
"Just believe in yourselves, go out and play, go out and enjoy it, pass the ball, play on the front foot and ask questions of them.
"All the things that we do or we feel we do naturally came to fruition in the second half, which was important.
"We caused them problems early on and we kept that impetus going and that was important.
"We get the goals, which is really important and I thought we did a really professional job.”
Whilst the defenders will grab the headlines for their goals and the clean sheet – Magilton was quick to praise the contributions of strikers Eric McWoods and Ryan Curran.
He explained: "That's the foundation for any really good team and teams that want to be competitive - keep the ball out of your net and score on the other end.
"It's very simple this game, complicated by us but the basics of the game was that.
“It's our work ethic, it's our intensity with and without the ball. I still think there's so much more to come from the group but today was a good day for us.
"Dungannon always come here, pose problems, they're a very good side on their day as they've shown...but today was our day and we managed to get three points.
"Eric and Ryan set the tone for us and their work ethic is incredible.
"Their numbers are through the roof, I'm not big on it but it is important for us. Their high intensity and overall play are so important for us.
"Both of them work their socks off and if we can keep the ball at the end of the pitch. Obviously our job is to create lots more opportunities for them. It's how we set up the play but they set the tone and they're doing great for us."