Jim Magilton happy to see positive Cliftonville reaction despite North Belfast Derby defeat to Crusaders

The Reds were on the wrong end of a shock scoreline at Inver Park on Saturday and their winless Premiership run was extended to four matches as Jordan Forsythe and Stewart Nixon scored for the Crues either side of Joe Gormley’s 51st minute strike.

Cliftonville had won the three previous meetings between the two rivals this season, but Stephen Baxter celebrated victory in his final North Belfast Derby and 949th match in charge of the Seaview outfit.

Crusaders are entering the European play-offs in fine form having only lost one of their last nine matches – that was a dramatic late defeat to Linfield on Friday – and have opened up a four-point advantage over Glentoran in fourth.

Magilton’s men are guaranteed to finish third and have already booked their spot in next season’s Europa Conference League qualifiers, but will be looking to end the campaign on a high by securing Irish Cup glory.

“I hate losing so I’m disappointed but we needed a reaction from Saturday and I think we got one,” Magilton told the club’s website. “I thought we started the game really brightly, created some really good opportunities but didn’t take them.

"We know set pieces are one of Crusaders’ great strengths and we’ve conceded a really poor goal, but I thought we regrouped and some of our play was really good.

“We wanted to get on the front foot in the second-half – Joe scores a good goal and it’s a very open game and one we certainly felt we were very much in.

“Even in the build-up to their winning goal, we have a ball flashed across the box, we can’t put it in and they go up the field and score.

“The most important thing for us was playing with more confidence, passing the ball better and creating the opportunities we know we can.

"So that was a real improvement from what we saw on Saturday – it was a better performance, not a great result but now we’ve got to go again on Saturday against Glentoran. If we bring that sort of vibrancy and fluidity into our game, that’s how we want to go about things.”