Cliftonville assistant manager Gerard Lyttle said the nine-man Reds “beat ourselves” with their dismal and ill-disciplined first-half performance in the 2-0 Irish Premiership defeat by Portadown.
Ryan Mayse’s fourth-minute goal gave the Ports a deserved lead and Ahu Obhakhan doubled their advantage in first-half injury-time after Reds pair Conor Pepper and Jonny Addis were red carded.
“I just said to the lads, credit to Portadown for winning but I don’t think Portadown have beaten us, I think we’ve beaten ourselves especially in the first-half performance,” said the Cliftonville assistant boss, who took charge of the Reds as manager Jim Magilton was serving a ban.
Lyttle described Cliftonville’s defending for Mayse’s early goal as “poor” before things went from bad to worse amid what he described as the “chaos” of the red cards suffered by Pepper and Addis, which the Reds assistant didn’t quibble about.
“We were trying to get in at half-time, lick our wounds, 1-0 down with 10 men.
“Things can be different and we can look at changing a few things but when you lose two men in the first half, it’s a mountain to climb.”