Paddy McLaughlin points to strength off the sidelines for leaders Cliftonville

The Reds hold a slender single-point advantage over defending champions Linfield heading into tonight’s visit by Portadown to Solitude.

McLaughlin was left to praise the ‘gritty oul performance’ behind a weekend win over Glenavon despite trailing until 80 minutes on the clock.

Chris Curran joined play off the sidelines and provided two assists for Ryan Curran to fire home a match-winning brace in quick succession.

“Without being at our best, it was a gritty oul performance,” said McLaughlin on the official Cliftonville website. “Glenavon were well set-up, they worked hard and did everything their manager would have asked of them and made it really difficult for us to build up any kind of momentum throughout the game.

“On the flip side of that, you have to give our boys credit as well because when a team does that to you and you still produce a win, it’s a brilliant trait to have in your locker.

“Fair play to them, they turned the game on its head when it looked like they were going to come away with not just a draw, but with nothing.

“The players weren’t playing badly, we just needed something different.

“The way the game was going, Glenavon were going to see it out for a 1-0 win.

“When you’re trying to think of solutions of how to change that, it wasn’t anything to do with the players coming off – it’s more about the player going on and what he can bring and something different is what we needed.

“You could see that Glenavon were comfortable in what they were doing, so getting Paul O’Neill, Chris Curran and Daniel Kearns on the pitch was important.

“I thought Daniel was excellent even though it was only a 10-minute appearance but he put them on the back foot and put us on the front foot.

“Chris Curran had two assists and Paul O’Neill has come in and shown his strength and his cuteness late in the game, bullying people high up the pitch – so the substitutions weren’t about who we wanted to take off, it was more about getting those boys on.”

Tonight’s other Premiership fixture features fourth-placed Larne playing host to a Glentoran side trailing the Inver Park outfit by three points.

In the BetMcLean League Cup, Limavady United welcome Dungannon Swifts and PSNI visit Linfield.

The Co Antrim Shield quarter-final features a trip to tackle Ballyclare Comrades by Crusaders.

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