Cliftonville's Gerard Lyttle refusing to ‘point the finger’ past players in nine-man defeat

Ryan Mayse broke the deadlock before Conor Pepper’s dismissal for two quickfire bookings ahead of a Jonny Addis straight red and second home goal, scored by Ahu Obhakhan, before the break.

​"Obviously a poor day for us,” said assistant manager Lyttle, who was in charge on Saturday due to Jim Magilton serving a suspension. "Credit Portadown, they've got the win but I think we beat ourselves today, to be honest, in terms of the first half.

"First half the game was done...it's hard enough when you lose one player but when you lose two players it's always going to be backs against the wall.

"But it was the nature of how we lost those players and how we conceded the goals...really disappointing."

Lyttle added how “the first half was unacceptable for us as a team and club, we felt let down”.

"Jonny's was definitely (red)...but Conor's, maybe a little bit of common sense from the referee, he (Conor) has just been booked,” said Lyttle. "I think the pitch played a part in getting the second yellow card in terms of timing your tackles and timing your passes.

"When you look at it, I don't think there's been any contact in Conor's second yellow card.

"That's disappointing obviously.

"Odhran Casey (earlier booking for off-the-ball incident) was stupid and we spoke about it at half-time that he was lucky."

He added: "We could stand here and point the finger at officials and point the finger at everybody but at the end of the day we've lost the game...we've put a poor performance in, especially the first half."

On an afternoon dictated by negatives, Lyttle highlighted the “character” across the second half as one plus – but with a word of caution.

"The second half all we could do was maybe treat it as a training session in terms of a defensive session and get something out of it that way,” said Lyttle. “It was important that that didn't happen (concede more goals).

"That's what we asked at half-time from the lads, to show a bit of character.

"And for the fans as well who have come down and paid their money to watch their team...it's the very least we could do.

"But it was character second half but a lack of character first half that got us into trouble.

"It's hard to single anyone out...the boys that stayed on the pitch and finished the game all have to come out with a bit of credit in terms of rolling their sleeves up.

"I don't think Portadown had a shot in the second half...it's really frustrating for us, we could make a lot of excuses today for things but there was no excuse for the first-half performance."

The loss of Addis and a second goal all inside the final three minutes of the first half proved decisive.

"At 1-0 I was just thinking 'let's get in at half-time and we'll regroup',” said Lyttle. "At 10 men I'm thinking we'll rejig at half-time but it's hard and at that point (second red card and second goal) there's not too many things you can do.

"The only thing was ask the players to stay in the shape, work hard, keep good discipline and keep the scoreline as it is.”