Limavady United Claims Victory Over Cliftonville with Late Goal
Irish Premiership
Limavady United 2 – 1 Cliftonville FT
Stephen O’Donnell delivered a crucial performance for Limavady United, scoring his first goal for the club in the second half to secure a 2-1 victory against Cliftonville.
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Limavady faced a shaky start within the opening 11 minutes when Rory Hale scored a stunning long-range goal, giving Cliftonville an early lead. However, the hosts quickly responded, with John Butcher finding the net just two minutes later to level the score.
The match remained tightly contested until O’Donnell capitalized on a corner taken by Lewis Tosh in the 58th minute, heading the ball past the opposition keeper in front of a jubilant youth football team supporting from the stands.
Despite valiant efforts from Cliftonville to recover, they could not overcome the hosts, who moved up to ninth place in the league standings, breaking their winless streak since October 10.
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Cliftonville initially controlled possession and struck first when Hale executed an impressive lob from 40 yards, catching Limavady’s keeper Marty Gallagher off guard. Limavady quickly equalized when Butcher outmaneuvered his marker to score from close range after connecting with Tosh’s cross.
Cliftonville continued to dominate possession, with Joe Sheridan testing Gallagher from outside the box. Limavady countered, with Tosh missing a shot just wide of the far post before the half-time break. Dean McMaster attempted a free-kick from the edge of the box, but it soared over Limavady’s goal.
In the second half, Cliftonville pressed forward, but a vital block from O’Donnell kept Limavady’s defense intact. The turning point came after a Butcher shot was deflected away, leading to O’Donnell’s decisive goal from a corner kick.
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Cliftonville’s attempts to regain control, led by manager Jim Magilton’s substitutions, fell short as they failed to challenge Gallagher effectively. Limavady’s substitute Oisin Duffy nearly sealed the win with a late chance, but his shot was denied by Morrison.
What the managers said
Limavady United manager Paul Owens said: “I’m delighted for the players because over the last four weeks, we’ve gone to the wire in every game. The amount of effort these boys are putting in, we’ve obviously a very small squad with limited resources and a lot of injuries at the minute, but the boys have just kept going to the well and we’ve finally got our rewards in with a massive win.
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“I actually thought we started the game really well, but you can see it’s an error from our goalkeeper for their goal, there’s no hiding from that. We could easily have felt sorry for ourselves, but we followed up a good start and we just kept going. It just shows the character and belief in there.
“One of the last things I said as we walked out, look at the physical presence we have and look at the experience we have in this changing room. I thought we were brilliant to a man tonight.”
Cliftonville manager Jim Magilton said: “I think Limavady deserved to win the game. We didn’t do enough. We didn’t make their keeper work enough. We got off to a good start, probably against the run of play, and it gave us a platform, you’d think, to go on, given our recent run of results. But we didn’t have enough. We looked as if for 45 minutes we were still on the bus.
“We didn’t move the ball anywhere near quick enough. We didn’t do what we’d been doing really well. We didn’t attack in numbers, we didn’t defend in numbers and our spaces were wide open.
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“We can’t concede the goals we conceded, one was set-piece and the other a free header. They capitalised on that and they had something to protect. They’re going to do that and they were throwing bodies on the line. We never tested their goalkeeper, so that’s massively disappointing for us.”
