Rampant Reds too hot for Blues

Gary Hamilton again gave his younger players the chance to play and gain valued experience in a high intensity game against a strong Cliftonville side.

Glenavon fell behind on six minutes when Liam Boyce lobbed the ball forward for Joe Gormley, there was more than a hint of hand ball as he brought it down and slipped away from Eddie McCallion ,but the ref was behind play and would not have seen it and the Cliftonville man fired past Sean McIlhone. It was his 37th goal of the season - a club record.

Gary Hamilton’s side responded by creating two good chances, both falling to Tiarnan Mulvenna but on both occasions he just missed the target.

The Reds were quick and dangerous on the break but Andy Kilmarton did well to block Martin Donnelly as he was set to connect from 12 yards out.

Then the Reds went close two minutes later with Curran’s low cross just clipped away for a corner by McCallion with Gormley waiting to pounce.

On 35 minutes Glenavon should have been level, McCallion floated over a free kick, Murphy flicked it on and Ciaran Martyn rose highest only to direct his header inches wide of the goal.

The second half saw an early chance for Martyn but keeper Devlin raced out to punch the ball off his head.

Cliftonville took a firmer grip of the game on 53 minutes by doubling their lead. Martin Donnelly curled a free kick round the wall and wide of McIlhone in the Glenavon goal.

The Reds sealed the game on 66 minutes with Marc Smyth drilled the ball home from the edge of the box as the champions move ever clsoer to retaining their title.

Mulvenna looked certain to pull a goal back on 89 minutes when set up by McDaid but Devlin produced a fine save.

Then within sixty seconds Stephen Garrett compounded Glenavon’s misery by scoring from close range on 90 minutes. There was still time for Donnelly to make it 5-0 for the rampant Reds in added time.

The scoreline was rather harsh on Glenavon with several good performances from Owen McKeown, Mark Sykes and tireless running for Tiarnan Mulvenna.

Glenavon: McIlhone, Neill, Murphy, Kilmartin, Patton, Martyn, Skyes, McCaul, McKeown, Mulvenna.