‘The buck stops with me’ – Unsavoury ending but Jim Magilton takes responsibility for ‘limp’ Cliftonville performance

Three sent off after confrontations following Portadown’s late winner as Jim Magilton left unhappy with Cliftonville’s performance

Jim Magilton insists the unsavoury scenes at the end of Cliftonville’s defeat to Portadown on Saturday would not be used to cover up his side’s “limp” performance.

The Reds looked to have rescued a point as Odhran Casey’s injury-time goal cancelled out Eamon Fyfe’s opener for the visitors.

But more drama was to come as James Teelan struck a late, late winner for the Ports sparking off a melee on the sidelines as the opposition benches clashed.

Cliftonville Assistant Manager Gerard Lyttle joined Portadown coach Steven Hyndes and midfielder Ben Wylie in being sent off by referee Chris Morrison.

Speaking after the game Magilton told the Cliftonville website: “It overshadows and takes away from everything else that happened in the game but, at the end of the day, we just weren’t good enough.

“When you look at the game overall, you can’t give passion to people. It’s driven from within; it’s driven from you personally as an individual and that spreads through the team. Despite the valiant efforts of Odhran Casey, we were limp.

“We didn’t show any imagination, any desire to take the game to Portadown. They sat off, they had a game plan and we had enough opportunities to actually go and pass the ball and when we strung two passes together, we opened them up a little bit but there were no real chances other than Eric’s.

“You get in at half-time, you have a few choice words and you’re thinking there’s going to be a reaction but, again, we’ve flattered to deceive.

“For our goal, Odhran’s shown unbelievable energy and desire to win the tackle; ball goes wide, ball’s in the box and he goes and wins it. Other than him, there were very few people who actually came out with any real credit – but I’m the Manager, I pick the team, so I have to take full responsibility for this and I do.

“There are absolutely no excuses for that performance. The Manager picked the team so the Manager has to take full blame – OK, when you cross the white line, your Manager can’t control when they give the ball away or a player’s poor decision making but, ultimately, the buck stops with the Manager.”