Cliftonville boss Jim Magilton hits out at 'poor decision' during Solitude defeat: 'Never a penalty'
Cliftonville boss Jim Magilton says referee Christopher Morrison rushed into awarding Larne a penalty in Fridsay night's 3-1 defeat to the champions.
With the scoreline locked at 1-1, Morrison showed Jonny Addis a red card for pushing Andy Ryan who was through on goal.
Television replays showed that the contact was made outside the box, but Morrison pointed to the spot and Scottish striker Ryan converted to make it 2-1.
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The home side were still reeling when Paul O'Neill scored Larne's third goal two minutes later, effectively wrapping up the win against Magilton's 10-man side.
Magilton told the BBC: "At the time I thought he was well outside the box, I thought it was a red card, but the referee just needed to take a second. He just needed to take a breath. He was very quick with the penalty decision.
"I thought Jonny had to go - he was the last man, and he has clearly pushed him, so the red card was without debate.
"But it was never a penalty, he was never anywhere near the box in terms of being inside, so I thought it was a really poor decision."
Magilton was critical of his side's defending which led to the penalty award, with Ryan catching out Addis and Michael Newberry to latch onto a long ball.
"It was bad defending, you don’t get beat by one ball at this level of football," he admitted.
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"Andy Ryan is a predator, he reacted first. We had two experienced defenders against one striker and that should never happen, it was too easy, and we got punished."
Cliftonville led through Rory Donnelly's 17th-minute header, but Larne produced a storming second-half comeback to take all three points.
Tomas Cosgrove levelled with a back post finish, and then Ryan slotted his penalty past David Odumosu to make it 2-1 before O'Neill added the gloss with a header.
Larne also hit the woodwork twice in the space of seconds when Ryan and O'Neill were both denied by the crossbar.
Magilton said: "It was really disappointing, we spoke at half-time about what was going to happen next in terms of Larne, they were going to press and we had to defend at least for the first 15 minutes until we got a foothold in the game.
"I think we pressed the panic button so it played out as we suggested it might at half-time and ultimately, they’re a team that sniff blood and when they do, they punish you."
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