Jim Magilton not getting carried away despite Cliftonville's perfect start to Sports Direct Premiership campaign

The former Northern Ireland international watched on as Ben Wilson’s brace, a Ronan Doherty penalty and Rory Hale’s second goal in as many matches handed them a 4-0 home win over Carrick Rangers, bringing their team tally to 10 goals in the process.

Tougher tests undoubtedly await the Reds – starting with Tuesday night’s trip to fellow unbeaten contenders Linfield – before clashes with reigning champions Larne, Glentoran and Crusaders in the next few weeks.

“I can’t praise the players enough, not just for this game but for everything they’ve done from the minute I came in,” Magilton told the club’s website. “We obviously had a good win against Glenavon last week but there were parts of the game we all felt we could improve on, which we did when we went to Newry on Tuesday night.

"I then felt we got better again against Carrick and that’s what we want to do – build from game to game.

“We’re under no illusions. We’ve only played three matches and nobody’s getting carried away with anything because there’s nothing to get carried away about, but there have been a lot of positives that have set us up for the really big tests we’re going to face.”

Opponents Carrick came into the fixture off the back of an impressive 2-0 triumph over Coleraine but were blown away at Solitude with Cliftonville once again starting quickly by scoring three goals before half-time.

That’s an early trend being set under Magilton with first-half blitzes in their opening two matches against Glenavon and Newry City also securing comfortable victories before the break.

“We knew Carrick would carry huge threats and we had to do our best to extinguish them and then come out with the strengths that we have, so I’m delighted with the performance,” he added. “Our game management was very, very good – and we even got ourselves a goal in the second-half for a change.

“In terms of the style of play and the intensity we want to bring to a game, it’s very difficult sometimes for a manager and a coaching staff to talk about this but, at the end of the day, the people that implement that are the players – and they deserve huge credit for what they’ve done and what they continue to do.”