Linfield and Cliftonville remain locked on 14 points at the top of the Irish Premiership after a goalless draw at Solitude on Tuesday night.
The sides, in their first meeting since Cliftonville won the Irish Cup final back in May, played out a 90 minutes where chances were few and far between with the result keeping David Healy’s side top of the league courtesy of goal difference.
At the Oval, Glentoran got back to winning ways to move into third with victory over Loughgall. After consecutive 1-0 losses, Jay Donnelly opened the scoring for Declan Devine’s side before Daniel Amos’ deflected strike made the points safe.
Dungannon Swifts are tucked in behind the Belfast trio in the table after they responded to last week’s defeat to Portadown with another impressive Stangmore Park showing to beat Crusaders 1-0.
Champions Larne continue to struggle for momentum in the league as they followed up last weekend’s big win over Linfield with a goalless draw away to Glenavon while Portadown rescued a point in injury time, drawing 2-2 with Coleraine having been 2-0 behind.
At Taylor’s Avenue, things went very much according to form with Ballymena’s 4-1 triumph representing a fourth straight win for the Braidmen, but a sixth consecutive loss for Carrick Rangers who remain rooted to the bottom of the table.
More to follow.
Defences on top in top of the table draw
After a quiet first half in north Belfast, the game between the league’s top two burst into life mere moments after the interval when Joe Gormley’s defence-splitting through ball released Kris Lowe. With only Chris Johns to beat, the midfielder skied his volley over, spurning a gilt-edged opportunity for the hosts.
This missed chance seemed to ignite the visitors’ attacking spirit. The Blues hit back and thought they had broken the deadlock in the 52nd minute when Matthew Fitzpatrick’s towering header from Kyle McClean‘s inch-perfect free-kick found Joel Cooper, who unleashed a volley that arrowed into the top corner. However, the winger’s ecstasy was fleeting as the offside flag cut his celebrations agonizingly short.
Buoyed by this near-miss, David Healy’s charges continued to probe. Five minutes later, Chris McKee connected with Kirk Millar‘s tantalizing freekick, but his glancing header sailed agonizingly over the crossbar, further intensifying the away side’s frustration.
Not to be outdone, Jim Magilton’s men responded with renewed vigour. In the 65th minute, Ryan Curran pirouetted brilliantly on the edge of the area before unleashing a vicious shot that seemed destined to nestle in the bottom right-hand corner. However, Johns produced a moment of sheer brilliance, diving full-stretch to fingertip the ball behind for a corner, denying the Reds the breakthrough.
Quick start gets Glens back on track
Glentoran have struggled for goals of late but fans had barely sat down when they were on their feet again at the Oval, with Jay Donnelly hitting the net after just five minutes.
David Fisher was given far too much time inside the Loughgall box, allowing him to roll the ball across goal and giving Donnelly the simplest of tap-ins from five yards.
On 20 minutes it could have been two. A delightful chip over the defence by goal-scorer Donnelly sent Jordan Jenkins clear. The striker got an effort away, but Nathan Gartside made a superb stop to knock the ball onto the upright and away to safety.
Donnelly then should have doubled his own tally on half-time after being sent through by Fuad Sule, but his shot was too close to Gartside who got a hand on it.
The hosts only had to wait nine minutes after the restart to get their second however.
The ball was half-cleared inside the Loughgall box to Amos who swung a foot making a poor contact, but his deflected effort trickled into the bottom left-hand corner of the net with Gartside scrambling across to no avail.
Caolan McAleer twice went close for the visitors but it wasn’t to be as the Glens held on to put a long-awaited smile on their fans’ faces.