Newry City 1 Cliftonville 2
Jonny Addis celebrates his late winner with the Cliftonville support
Centre-back Jonny Addis showed the strikers how it’s done at The Showgrounds, as his brace — a Goal of the Season contender and a winner seven minutes into stoppage-time — pulled a lacklustre Cliftonville over the line against bottom-placed Newry City.
All the more remarkable was that Addis turned in such a tremendous display after the passing of his grandmother yesterday morning, and Reds boss Jim Magilton said “that sums up the man” that his No.4 is.
“We kept going and we won it through the unlikeliest of heroes who popped up,” he said. “The first goal is a wonderful strike, which we know he (Addis) possesses.
“Then the second one is probably better given the context. To have the composure to take it on his chest and rifle it into the top corner was fantastic, and the scenes at the end were just magnificent.
“Someone from up above was looking down on him and smiling. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. I didn’t know that, but it sums up the man that he is.”
Newry City got off to the perfect start when Adam Salley glanced the ball into the far corner as the clock ticked past the two-minute mark.
However, the dynamic of the game changed with two key moments either side of half-time.
In first-half stoppage-time, Rory Hale was driving down the right wing with the ball when Ciaran O’Connor flew in with a two-footed tackle, which earned him a straight red card.
Then, on 47 minutes, it was level pegging when Addis had space to shoot 30 yards out from goal. The centre-half took Newry up on the offer and found the top corner with a howitzer.
And with the seconds ticking away, Ronan Hale crossed for Addis deep in added-time,
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