WHAT THE MANAGER SAID: Cliftonville's Jim Magilton clear 'end of the road for one or two' after 'awful' loss

Here’s the verdict from Cliftonville boss Magilton after goals by Eamon Fyfe and Josh Ukek for Portadown at Shamrock Park:

OVERALL PERFORMANCE...

"It was awful - in terms of our attitude and application to the game...second best from minute one to minute 90.

"A few little moments but not enough...that summed up our season away from home.

"We limped to a 2-0 defeat.

"We didn't show enough desire or purpose in our game.

"The pitch is irrelevant, we're not going to make any excuses.

"There was definitely a fear in trying to pass the ball...there was such a lack of desire to try and get a result.

"That's a night of soul-searching for me.

"It's probably now the end of the road for one or two."

STANDARDS...

"I always expect more and that was not acceptable at any standard, at any level.

"For any team of mine it's just not good enough, nowhere near the levels.

"Even if you have a bad day, which we all have, your first thought is to roll up your sleeves and work harder than the opposition and we didn't even do that...maybe one or two came out with a wee bit of glory but not many.

"That can't set into your dressing room, it has to be erased very, very quickly.

"People will make excuses...there are no excuses.

"They may talk about playing at home on a 4G but it's irrelevant, it's always about intent.

"You have to go out with the intent that this is our DNA, this is how we want to play.

"And I didn't see any of that today...that was really disappointing.

"The quality of the pitches haven't been brilliant this year, that's fact but I'm not making excuses, I was brought up playing on grass as there wasn't 4G.

"You go in today five (wins) on the bounce and the dressing room's happy - but we played poorly and lost poorly here (Shamrock Park) the last time so the very essence of that is let's have a reaction.

"Fans are expecting one...but we got no reaction."

IRISH CUP FINAL...

"If people are potentially thinking they're saving themselves for the cup final they're definitely dealing with the wrong individual and wrong staff.

"There will definitely be an upsurge in training and intensity.

"I can honestly tell you that cup final teams are picked even up to the morning of the game.

"I know my strongest 11 but what today tells me is that character and personality on days like today have to stand out.

"And we were left wanting in so many areas."

END TO SEASON...

"Over the course of a season you have one or two moments and we've had one or two real moments where we've had to try and knock it on the head.

"Today is a jolt...you talk about momentum and building up that head of steam, you talk about galloping into a final.

"But that was limp and we have to address that pretty quickly.

"There's two cup finals...there is everything to lose and everything to gain.

"We have to win next week (final league game)...that's the bottom line."