Irish Premiership: Glenavon 5-0 Cliftonville

Eoin Bradley of Glenavon in action against Cliftonville's Tomas Cosgrove

Glenavon made it five Irish Premiership wins in a row with an emphatic 5-0 victory over Cliftonville on Tuesday.

Kevin Braniff headed the Lurgan men into the lead from Rhys Marshall's cross in the 11th minute.

Braniff netted a superb second soon after the restart and Eoin Bradley shot in number three on 63 minutes.

Former Hamilton defender Dave Elebert added the fourth and Mark Patton made it 5-0 three minutes from time.

The emphatic victory takes Glenavon level on points with third-placed Cliftonville who have the better goal difference.

It was Tommy Breslin's heaviest defeat in his four years in charge of the Reds.

The last time the north Belfast side were on the wrong end of such a scoreline was when they lost 5-0 to Crusaders at Seaview in March 2011 under then manager Eddie Patterson.

It extends Glenavon's fine run which has seen them make a late push for Europa League action next season.

They made a great start with Marshall's fine delivery from the right being directing beyond Peter Cherrie by Braniff's accurate header.

Home keeper James McGrath made a good save from Cliftonville striker Joe Gormley as the visitors came into the contest more towards the end of the first half.

But the outgoing champions found themselves two down in the 50th minute when Braniff beat defender Marc Smyth and went on to unleash a low right-foot shot past Cherrie.

Bradley netted number three with a shot which squeezed past Cherrie, Elebert got the fourth after a corner was not cleared and Patton swept in the final goal near the end.

Glenavon's Kevin Braniff: "Getting into European football is the aim now we have got ourselves into this position.

"At the start of the season we were aiming for a top six place but now we have a chance of third spot."

Cliftonville manager Tommy Breslin: "The players know my feelings. We were second best all over pitch and it was not good enough.

"They will have to do a lot better.

"We gave away a soft goal and just did not come out for the second half."