Former Cliftonville coach Stephen Small always felt confident the Reds would be able to turn their fortunes around, labelling Jim Magilton’s side as the Premiership’s “best coached part-time team”.

Between September 15 and October 17, Cliftonville lost six consecutive Premiership matches, failing to score in four during that run, but have roared back to top form in fine style.

Following Friday’s impressive 4-2 victory over reigning champions Larne, Magilton’s men have now won five on the spin across three different competitions, including reaching another Co Antrim Senior Shield final.

During their winning streak, Cliftonville have scored 19 goals – they put seven past Carrick Rangers on October 31 – and moved into fifth spot in the Premiership, trailing fourth-placed Glentoran, who have played one fewer match, by just a point.

placeholder image — Cliftonville manager Jim Magilton. (Photo by Desmond Loughery/Pacemaker Press)

Across their winless spell, Cliftonville lost five games in a row by a single goal, but have seemingly now returned to their best ahead of visiting Limavady United on Friday night.

A frequent visitor to Solitude, former Reds player Small watched enough to know Cliftonville’s results would turn – and is impressed by the work of Magilton and assistant Gerard Lyttle.

"I've watched quite a bit of them, I've been at most of the home matches,” Small told the News Letter. “I think they're the best coached part-time team.

"They pass the ball really well, have good structure, and that's credit to Jim and Gerard who have set them up really well.

"The chances that they created previously that they weren't taking, they are now taking almost every opportunity.

"Some of the movement and the passing...they have some really good young technical players.

"It was a sticky patch, no doubt about that, and the results weren't great, but there were reasons for it.

"They lost players at key times in games, they missed decent opportunities and maybe just didn't defend as well as they should have.

"But they've got a good identity, they pass the ball well and they seem to have come out of that sticky spell.”

Having played in the Premier League, amassed 52 international caps for Northern Ireland and held managerial roles at significant English clubs, Magilton is a highly-experienced – and quality – operator.

The Reds have reached five cup finals since the 57-year-old took over in 2023, celebrating Irish Cup and BetMcLean Cup glory, and Small insists there wouldn’t have been any panic.

"I think that was all outside noise about bad runs and that sort of thing,” added Small. “Looking at Jim in his interviews, I think he handled it really well in terms of not panicking.

"Jim's been through this before with other teams where he knows how to negotiate it.

"He probably knows that they weren't playing badly. It'd be different if you were playing really badly, couldn't create a chance, conceding loads of goals – that wasn't the case.

"I know the form wasn't great but he's wise enough and in the game long enough to know the signs of something really bad and signs of something that just hadn't been working...that’s all it was.”