'We've given away two poor goals' - Magilton

A frustrated Cliftonville boss Jim Magilton said his side conceded "two really poor goals" in Friday's 2-1 Premiership defeat by Larne.

First-half goals from Paul O'Neill and Joe Thomson sealed the hosts' win as Ronan Hale hit a late reply.

"From our point of view, they are two poor defensive goals," said Magilton.

"We can't afford to do that against top sides that are going to punish you.

"You can look at every goal you concede and pick the bones out of it. We've been really good and focused in those [defensive] areas [this season] and haven't given up goals, but I thought tonight, we gave up two really soft goals."

The Reds boss also said his side "didn't make the most of the opportunities we created".

Cliftonville made a fast start to the game and could have gone ahead inside the opening minute, when Ben Wilson spurned a good chance when through on goal.

Magilton felt that if the in-form striker had have taken that chance, it would have been a different game.

"I thought we were bang in it, for large parts we dominated the ball and got into good areas.

"We worked on creating that exact opportunity after a minute, probably the chance has come too quickly for Ben [Wilson] but it is a fantastic save from the goalkeeper."

He added: "On another day Ben scores and that gives us the confidence to go on, we know then Larne would have to come after us and then we can pick them off."

'We knew we needed a result' - Lynch

Larne manager Tiernan Lynch was delighted by his side's victory.

"Tonight, as much as we wanted a performance, we knew we needed a result," said Lynch.

"Our performance was very good for long periods. It was high intensity out there, I thought we defended well when we needed to and in possession we played some really good football.

"Both our goals were excellent, the work we did to get them, I thought Joe [Thomson] like Paul [O'Neill] showed great character to make sure he got something on the end of it."

Larne's victory sees the champions move to within five points of Linfield although the Blues have Saturday's game at Newry City in hand.