Cliftonville boss Paddy McLaughlin believes striker Ronan Hale can grow to be the most effective within the enterprise.
The 23-year-old yesterday produced a second of high quality in opposition to Glenavon to assist his crew nick three Danske Financial institution Premiership factors at Mourneview Park.
He could have been denied on a number of events by goalkeeper Rory Brown, however when referee Tim Marshall awarded a free-kick on the sting of the field with solely eight minutes remaining, Hale drilled house an unstoppable effort to spark scenes of pleasure among the many Pink Military.
“He actually appeared the probably to interrupt the impasse — it was a superb free-kick,” purred McLaughlin.
“He’s a superb centre-forward. He’s aggressive and he desires to attain targets on a regular basis.
“Ronan performs on the entrance foot; he at all times tries to get strikes away. That’s why we pushed and labored so arduous to get him to the membership. I feel that has already been justified.
“He has proven every part we thought he was about and doubtless extra, we're delighted to have him on board.
“Ronan is hungry for targets, but it surely’s the identical with Joe (Gormley) and Ryan (Curran), who've been sensible for us this season. These three boys are going to be key for us over the course of the season.”
Though they left it late, McLaughlin at all times felt a objective was coming.
He added: “We're at all times assured with the group of gamers we now have, we believed there was a objective coming. Even amongst us within the dugout, we believed it was coming.
“We had some nice passages of play all through the sport and had been maybe missing a little bit killer contact or a telling ultimate move. We knew the probabilities would come and it took that little bit of brilliance from Ronan to win it.
“The boys are in place, however we all know over the course of the season there will probably be a number of bumps alongside the best way. We don’t get too excessive once we win and don’t get too low in defeat, it’s vital we preserve that.”
Glenavon chief Gary Hamilton was puzzled why the referee awarded the free-kick that led to the winner — penalising Calum Birney for a foul on Ryan Curran after which giving two completely different variations on his resolution.
“I want to see the free-kick incident once more,” moaned Hamilton.
“The referee informed the gamers he awarded the foul in opposition to Calum, however he didn’t contact him.
“Jack Malone mentioned he bought in entrance of Curran and he kicked the again of his calf. I seen Jack limping after the incident on the time. The boys within the dressing room are adamant that Curran kicked into Jack. I can solely take them at their phrase. If that’s the case, it has value us massively.
“I assumed the boys had been good; they competed for the 90 minutes and performed some good things in opposition to Cliftonville aspect. We simply hadn’t the luck on the day.
“Over the 90 minutes, it was an excellent sport of soccer. We had a number of probabilities ourselves, however the one strategy to win video games of soccer is to hit the goal. That’s the best way our luck goes on the minute.
“My large disappointment was we didn’t work their goalkeeper sufficient. I couldn’t fault the boys as a result of they gave it every part.
“It’s irritating. We have now but to win at house this season and that makes it much more robust to take.”
GLENAVON: Brown 6, Glynn 7 (Scannell, 88 minutes, 5), Birney 7 (J Doyle, 88 minutes, 5), Haughey 7, O’Connor 6 (McCloskey, 70 minutes, 5), Fitzpatrick 6, Baird 7, Wallace 6, Malone 6, Ward 6, Bradley 5 (Prendergast, 57 minutes, 5). Unused subs:Snoddy, Carey, Garrett.
CLIFTONVILLE:Gartside 7, Addis 7, Gallagher 6, C Curran 6 (McDonagh, 73 minutes, 6), R Curran 7, Lowe 6, Doherty 7, Gormley 6 (Moore, 73 minutes, 6), Turner 7, Hale 8 (Casey, 87 minutes, 5), Coates 7. Unused subs: Talley, Robinson, Storey, McGuinness.
REFEREE:Tim Marshall (Irvinestown) 6.