Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THANK EU JUNIOR
Ace’s brace hands Glens Conference spot
GLENTORAN put the hurt of last year’s European play-off behind them as they ran out convincing winners over Cliftonville at The Oval.
Twelve months ago the Glens let a two-goal lead slip as Larne produced a stunning comeback to nick the final slot in the Conference League.
There was to be no repeat this time around though as the Glens bossed the game throughout.
Junior was one of the heroes on the day as his first half brace put them in control against the Reds and sealed the financial windfall.
It was a miserable day all round for the visitors. who had substitute Donal Rocks sent off two minutes after coming on to the pitch.
Unsurprisingly, both managers went with the same starting line-ups from Wednesday night.
It was the hosts that settled the quickest and they carved out the first real opportunity with 12 minutes on the clock.
Conor McMenamin was at full stretch to get on the end of Terry Devlin’s clever cross but Nathan Gartside reacted well to beat it away at the near post.
The Glens suffered a blow on 21 minutes as captain Marcus Kane was forced off with an injury.
And Cliftonville’s first opening came four minutes later as Joe Gormley won a corner from which Chris Curran picked out the unmarked Ronan Hale but he blazed over a volley from 14 yards out.
The Reds almost played themselves into trouble minutes later as a misplaced header from Jonny Addis in his own box gave Junior a sniff but Gartside managed to punch the ball clear.
There was nothing the keeper could do though as Junior put the home side in front 10 minutes before the break.
It was another shaky moment for Addis as he upended McMenamin in the box and up stepped Junior to coolly dink the ball down the middle of the goal.
It got even better for the Glens in the 40th minute as Junior was on hand to fire home his second after Gartside could only block Terry Devlin’s effort from Rhys Marshall’s excellent cross.
Declan O’Hara introduced Colin Coates and Sean Moore at the break in a bid to try and get Cliftonville back into the game but they were perhaps fortunate not to be reduced to 10 men after rash challenges by both Gormley and Hale.
Referee Ian McNabb, however, produced only yellows to the Reds duo.
They didn’t heed the warning though as just two minutes after coming on as a substitute Rocks was shown a straight card for a late challenge of Devlin.
To their credit they kept pushing for a lifeline in the closing stages but they struggled to make any sort of inroads against a stubborn home defence.