Winning important after 'emotional week' - Magilton

Cliftonville halted a run of four straight league defeats with victory against Loughgall

Cliftonville boss Jim Magilton said that his side "struggled" in their 2-0 win against Loughgall at Solitude.

Second half goals from Jonny Addis and Stephen McGuinness secured a much-needed victory for the Reds, who had lost their previous four league games.

Magilton was pleased with the win after a difficult week for his players as they attended the funeral of former teammate Michael Newberry in Newcastle on Thursday.

"We struggled today, it has been a huge week for us in terms of emotion. The elation of winning a cup semi-final [against Larne], mixed with travelling to Newcastle to bury a colleague, wonderful man," he told BBC Sport NI.

"I think it drained the emotion from our performance, and you could tell, I'm not taking anything away from Loughgall, who were outstanding and created so many opportunities."

Magilton was disappointed with Cliftonville's performance despite the victory, which moved them up to fifth in the table.

"Loughgall made it very difficult, but we gave the ball away too much and we had too many players that weren't at it," he continued.

"We got away with one today, but given the context of the week, winning was important for us, we had to stop the rot."