Jim ​Magilton highlights Cliftonville ‘guts’ at heart of full points

Magilton had little interest in any debate over the scorer of the first goal, instead simply celebrating breaking the deadlock off a finish ultimately awarded to Rory Hale.

Lloyd Anderson left it level before Ben Wilson scored at Solitude to restore the Cliftonville lead.

"I’ve no idea...to be fair, I was celebrating (the first goal),” said Magilton on BBC Radio Ulster. "When the ball hits the back of the net pure delirium sets in so you don’t really care who scores.”

On the overall performance, Magilton said: "We’ve a lot to work on still, our overall game today wasn’t at the standards the players have set. We’ll take that on the chin.

"In terms of character and in terms of determination and guts to get over the line today I can only applaud them for that.

"I thought they were tremendous without the kind of football that we put on show here this season.”

And he delivered plenty of praise for Cliftonville’s derby rivals.

"Crusaders were excellent from start to finish and they didn’t lose hope or lose heart when they went a goal down,” said Magilton. "Stephen Baxter should be very, very proud of his team today.

"I thought they knocked us out of our stride, I thought we weren’t as fluent as we have been in recent weeks and that’s a credit to Crusaders.”