'We’ve a lot of hard work to do' - Jim Magilton admits Cliftonville will be 'working our socks off' to seek further improvements

With nothing separating the two teams after a goalless 90 minutes, goalkeeper David Odumosu proved to be the Reds’ hero, saving spot-kicks from Eamon Scannell and Conor Maxwell – while scoring his own – to ultimately secure a 9-8 triumph.

Ards missed an opportunity to progress at 5-5 when Max Greer blazed over after Kris Lowe had struck the crossbar and again at 8-8 with Corai Quinn failing to convert following Conor Pepper’s effort being denied.

With 11 new players brought in during the summer transfer window, including deadline day trio Micheal Glynn, Arran Pettifer and Taylor Steven who all made their first Cliftonville starts in Tuesday’s win, Magilton says his squad will be “working our socks off” to try and improve.

“It’s a huge relief,” he told the club’s website. “We wanted to be in the next round and that’s where we are – which is one better than last year – but Ards have obviously missed opportunities to win it and David’s made a couple of great saves, but Cup games can throw things like that up and we’ve a lot of hard work to do. We recognise that.

“We’ve got lads in now, there’ll be no changes until January, so it’s down to hard graft, getting back to basics and working our socks off.”

On the match, Magilton said: “You have to give Ards credit because they’re coming off the back of two big losses, so I’m sure John (Bailie, manager) would have been questioning character and resilience, which came in spadefuls against us so they deserve a lot of credit for that.

“We gave out some debuts and gave some of the new lads an opportunity to come and play important minutes. I thought we were bright at times in the first-half especially but then struggled a little bit even though we made positive substitutions to try and win the game.

“We made life difficult for ourselves because we didn’t convert chances and were wasteful in the attacking third.”