Cliftonville win again as Stuart King picks up first victory

While at Carrick Stuart King picked up his first win as manager as his side secured a 1-0 win over Warrenpoint Town.

It was a slow start at Solitude with neither side doing enough to trouble the defences in the opening 15 minutes.

The hosts though should have broken the deadlock on 18 minutes as Jamie McDonagh picked out Joe Gormley, but his header was superbly saved by Gareth Deane. Ryan Curran crashed the rebound off the bar before Gormley did put the ball in the net, but it was chalked off for offside.

The Bannsiders should have done better when Josh Carson robbed the ball off Jonny Addis ten minutes before the break, but Matthew Shevlin failed to really test Dunne from the midifielder’s pass.

There was a 15 minute delay at the start of the second half due to a floodlight failure.

When the action got underway again Stephen O’Donnell denied Rory Hale with a superb clearance, while at the other end Eoin Bradley was denied by a Levi Ives clearance on the line.

The Coleraine front man then picked out Shevlin, but he shot wide from a good position.

The game was turned on its head with two goals in three minutes. First Gormley headed in from a Jamie McDonagh cross before the unfortunate O’Donnell put through his own net from another McDonagh.

With two minutes to go Aaron Traynor halved the deficit with his second goal in as many games, but it was too little to late as the hosts held on for the win.

At Carrick the hosts had the ball in the net inside 15 minutes as Stewart Nixon fed Lloyd Anderson, who swept the ball home. It was flagged for offside even though the struck a Warrenpoint defender in the build up.

Carrick didn’t have long to wait for the opener though and what a goal it was as Daniel Kelly fired home an overhead kick, via a nick off Colm Deasy. They almost added a spectacular second before the break as Emmett McGuckin let fly with a dipping volley which Conor Mitchell did well to tip over.

Jim Ervin produced a goal-saving tackle to deny Alan Sullivan what would have been a certain goal at the start of the second half.

The homeside were also forced into a change at the break with the injured Aaron Hogg being replaced between the sticks by Matthew Skeet.

Carrick were proving dangerous though with Mitchell called into action to deny Nixon and Alex Gawne.

The game petered out in the closing stages as Carrick stood firm to give new boss Stuart King his first win since taking over the reins.