Cliftonville score late to edge past Larne

Ryan Curran scored a late winner to settle a cagey game between Cliftonville and Larne at Solitude.

After a match of very few chances, he turned a close range shot high into the net with just 3 minutes left to play.

In a dull first half, Cliftonville’s Jamie Harney flicked a header wide from a corner, and Joe Gormley failed to get an effort away when well placed inside the box as the opening 45 ended without a single shot on target.

Things were slightly better after the break; just a minute into the second half the game saw the first shot on target, a long range effort from Cliftonville’s Ronan Doherty that was easily saved by Conor Devlin.

On 50, Larne sparked into life as David McDaid played it through to Lee Lynch whose shot was smothered by Brush, but the home side won a penalty just 4 minutes later.

Larne’s Albert Watson bundled over Gormley inside the box as the striker chased a long ball forward. However, Gormley hooked his low effort completely wide of the bottom corner.

It prompted a response from the visitors, and within 5 minutes Cliftonville had to scramble to clear their lines to deny Donnolly and McDaid with two quickfire chances.

It wasn’t until the 87th minute that the deadlock was finally broken.

Ryan Curran started and finished the decisive move, slamming into the net from 6 yards after collecting Foster’s mishit shot across the face of goal.