Jim Magilton urges Cliftonville players to believe in themselves as Ronan Hale’s strike seals victory over Newry City

Cliftonville 1 Newry City 0

Cliftonville's Ronan Hale scored the only goal of the game against Newry City

Jim Magilton urged his Cliftonville side to have more belief in themselves after watching them come through a nervy home victory over Newry City.

Had the Reds been more clinical, they could have blown their visitors away during a lively opening quarter of an hour but only had Ronan Hale’s smart finish to show for their efforts at the break.

A failure to add to that lead meant that, as the clock ticked down, City sensed an opportunity to come away with something and Magilton admitted it was with a degree of relief that he welcomed the full-time whistle.

“We’ve had all these chances and then the footballing gods give them two corners in injury-time and you just start to wonder,” he smiled. “We had to defend them and there was a wee bit of relief at the end.”

He added: “We were good in patches but a little bit nervy. I’ve just told the players I think they’re a great group of lads and a really, really great group of players and they cannot lose confidence in the way we want to play — because that’s what’s brought them so much success.

PACEMAKER PRESS BELFAST 11-11-23 Sports Direct Premiership - Match Day 16 Cliftonville v Newry City Ronan Hale of Cliftonville scores opening goal during this Afternoon's game at Solitude, Belfast. Photo - Andrew McCarroll/ Pacemaker Press

“It’s about reiterating and reaffirming that, but also about being more clinical.”

Though Cliftonville found Newry goalkeeper Tom Murphy in top form, they were themselves grateful to David Odumosu for a trio of first-half stops, with one particularly acrobatic intervention keeping Jordan Mooney at bay.

“We were getting sloppy and giving incentive to