Jim Magilton praises Cliftonville's 'class act' as Irish League great extends stunning record goal haul

The 34-year-old celebrated making his 500th appearance for the North Belfast outfit on Tuesday evening and a matter of days later collected a 16th career match ball, further extending his lead as the club’s record goalscorer with three in County Tyrone moving one of the Irish League’s greatest-ever marksmen onto 281.

It also continues Gormley’s remarkable run against Dungannon – he has now netted 28 times in 32 league matches versus the Swifts – while only Ben Kennedy (11) can boast a better goal return this term than the former Peterborough United ace (10).

Former Northern Ireland international Magilton has managed in England, Australia, Republic of Ireland and now in the Irish League, but hasn’t seen anyone quite like Gormley.

"Joe Gormley is a class act and one of the finest finishers I’ve been around,” he said. “It’s no coincidence that he’s the one that finds space in the box – that’s an art in itself, I have no idea how they do it, but the great goalscorers find a way of doing it.

"He’s a phenomenal player. A lot was made of who left the club and of course we acknowledge their huge contribution to the club, but I also had great faith in Joe, Ryan (Curran), Ruaridhri (Donnelly), young Ryan Corrigan, Ryan Markey.

"We still need to add goals from midfield because I believe we have them. Everybody has to contribute to that but talking specifically about Joe Gormley, he’s an outstanding player.

"I wanted to kill him (for not squaring a ball in the second half after rounding Declan Dunne) because there were people in better positions and there were a few words exchanged!

"Dungannon have proven that they are an outstanding team this year so to come here and win in the manner we did is very pleasing.”

Cliftonville endured a run of just one win in eight Premiership matches between late-August and mid-October, but have since won four on the spin and are the league’s form team – no side has collected more points than their 13 across the past five games.

The victory at Stangmore Park means they continue to trail current leaders Linfield by five points heading into next weekend’s home clash against Ballymena United and Magilton hopes an impressive performance will only further bolster belief.

"Confidence is high – as it should be – and we’re looking forward to Ballymena next week,” he added. “There will be learnings from this game because I thought we turned the ball over too cheaply at times and were wasteful.

"I’m really delighted with the performance. We’ve been reinforcing confidence, reinforcing belief and telling players they are good players, but it comes down to work ethic.

"If you can outwork the opposition given the quality we have in the team then you stand a chance of scoring goals and we’ve still more to come.”