Glentoran manager Rodney McAree reacts to qualifying for Europe and Junior's Panenka penalty

The east Belfast team booked their lucrative ticket to the Europa Conference League following a one-sided 2-0 win over Cliftonville at the BetMcLean Oval on Saturday evening.

Striker Junior Uzokwe stole the show in the final match of a long, demanding league campaign. They may have finished in only third place in the table, but the play-off win could potentially earn the Glens a prize pot in the region of €240,000.

Little wonder the champagne was uncorked at the finish after Junior’s two first-half goals ultimately sealed the deal.

He stepped up 11 minutes before half-time to dink home a Panenka-style spot kick to send the home fans into a frenzy after Conor McMenamin was hauled down by Jonny Addis.

Then, just before the break, goalkeeper Nathan Gartside managed to beat away a Terry Devlin shot, but Junior was first to react, hoofing the ball into the roof of the net.

On the cheek of Junior’s penalty, McAree stated: “You don’t want to know my thoughts on it. I was standing having a conversation with Luke McCullough before he hit it, and I was thinking to myself he better score and then he steps up and does that!

"I've watched him hit penalties in training, we've been practicing the last few days nothing too rigorously, and he is exceptional at them. I haven't seen him dink too many of them right enough.

"If it hits the back of the net, it's all well and good, if it doesn't you feel like you want to strangle him. Thankfully it went in.

“We hadn’t thought who would take a penalty if one was awarded. We knew we had Conor Mac (McMenamin), we knew we had Junior and we knew we had Niall McGinn – we had people who were very capable of taking penalties.

"Once we won it, I think Tim (McCann) turned around and asked who was going to hit it and then I realised we hadn't nominated anyone, but it sorted itself out.”

McAree admits it was a nice way to end the season after quite a traumatic period.

He added: "It's been very draining mentally. I've had to keep encouraging and make sure people have smiles on their faces.

"Ultimately the players have helped me massively, without their attitude and discipline in terms of coming into training every day this wouldn't have been possible.

"There are a lot of players in our dressing room who could have downed tools a long time ago. There are a lot of players who are coming out of contract who could have given up the ghost, but thankfully they didn't, they have stuck by us.”

Cliftonville’s interim boss Declan O’Hara took charge of the team for the final time, but reckons there is a summer of change up ahead.

“It will be a massive summer for the club,” he said. “To be honest, I really don’t know what’s going on (behind the scenes).

"Maybe over the next few days I’ll find out more, but the next few months are massive for the club.

“The bottom line is, we have good players in the dressing room. I really feel for them because they work their socks off in every single training session.

"Now it’s over to the new manager, whoever that will be. It will be down to him to keep the team challenging for trophies.”

O’Hara admits it’s been a challenge stepping into the hotseat to replace Paddy McLaughlin, who left for Derry City last month.

“I loved it to be quite honest,” he added. “In saying that, I don’t know how other managers operate because it’s full-on, it’s constant.

"It’s basically a full-time job. I must thank Davy McAlinden and Marc Smyth who came in to help me out with Brendan Lynch.

“Everyone knows I’m Cliftonville through and through. Again, it’s not up to me if I remain at the club, it will be down to the new manager.

"If a new boss comes in and doesn’t want me, I will totally understand – that's football.”