Paddy McLaughlin delighted as Conor McMenamin delivers again

The midfielder’s hat-trick keeps the Reds in the title hunt and McLaughlin he continues to deliver.

“Conor’s been a big player for us since the second I walked through the door and he keep,” said the Cliftonville boss.

“He’s been criticised over the last few weeks because he hasn’t hit the massive heights he was at over Christmas but you need big players to step up and take responsibility and, with that performance, Conor has shown why he’s so important to us and why we rate him as highly as we do.”

After three league games without a win McLaughlin hailed his side’s character as they got back to winning ways again even with Liam Bagnall’s dismissal.

“It was a win that said a lot about our character and our fitness levels, too. We played an hour of that game with 10 men and the boys put a hell of a shift in with absolutely no signs of tiredness, even towards the end,” he said.

“It was a tough ask after the red card because Carrick are a good team full of their own hard workers and we knew everyone in a red shirt would have to step up and try to cover the difference in numbers and nobody shirked away from that responsibility.

“The red card is harsh. Liam being Liam, he is competitive and combative and he’s trying to win the ball back. I don’t think there was any malice, there was no lashing out or anything like that.

“We have been here before with Bagnall. Every time he makes a mistake, the referees are quick to punish him and it’s definitely something we need to look at because one of our key players is missing game time and matches because he is picking up suspensions for some very harsh decisions going against him.

“After that, we could have tried to hold on to the 1-0 lead or maybe even felt sorry for ourselves and criticised a poor refereeing decision to send Liam off, but we stayed positive and tried to add to our lead, which we did before half-time.”