O'Donnell scores winner as Limavady end Cliftonville's winning run

Irish Premiership Limavady United 2 - 1 Cliftonville FT Stephen O'Donnell picked the perfect time to pop up with his first goal for Limavady United as the defender's second-half header secured a 2-1 win over Cliftonville. Without a win since 10 October, things didn't look great for the Roesiders when Rory Hale netted a spectacular opener for the visitors with only 11 minutes on the clock at the Showgrounds. The hosts provided an instant response though as John Butcher grabbed his second goal in as many games to level matters two minutes later. It was nip and tuck after that before O'Donnell nodded home Lewis Tosh's 58th minute corner in front of his delighted youth football team, watching on from the stand. Cliftonville tried to muster a response but their three-game winning streak was ended as Limavady moved up to ninth in the table. The Reds dominated the ball in the opening exchanges and edged in front in spectacular fashion as Hale spotted Marty Gallagher off his line and lobbed the keeper from 40 yards out. Parity was restored inside two minutes thanks to Butcher's second goal in as many games, as the forward lost his marker to head home Lewis Tosh's cross from close range. The Reds continued to enjoy the lion's share of possession with Joe Sheridan taking advantage of some neat play on 23 minutes to test Gallagher from outside the box, with the home goalkeeper doing well to push the shot away. Back came the hosts with Tosh drilling a shot wide of the far post minutes later. Before the break, Dean McMaster stepped up looking to add to his tally of three goals so far this season, but his free-kick from the edge of the box sailed high and wide of the Limavady United goal. The visitors tarted the second half on the front foot and only a brave block by O'Donnell prevented them from retaking the lead. The defender was to play another vital role at the other end before the hour mark as the Roesiders took the lead. Morrison did well to push away a Butcher shot from outside the box, but from the resulting corner O'Donnell nodded home his first goal for the club before rushing off to celebrate with his son's football team, who were the mascots for the game. Jim Magilton emptied his bench to try and get back into the game, but despite dominating possession the Reds struggled to really threaten Gallagher in the home goal. But for a superb block by Leppard on 78 minutes to deny Tosh from close range they would have fallen further behind. Substitute Oisin Duffy could have wrapped it up in stoppage time as he raced away down the left, but his low shot was blocked away by Morrison. What the managers said Limavady United manager Paul Owens said: "I'm delighted for the players because over the last four weeks, we've gone to the wire in every game. The amount of effort these boys are putting in, we've obviously a very small squad with limited resources and a lot of injuries at the minute, but the boys have just kept going to the well and we've finally got our rewards in with a massive win. "I actually thought we started the game really well, but you can see it's an error from our goalkeeper for their goal, there's no hiding from that. We could easily have felt sorry for ourselves, but we followed up a good start and we just kept going. It just shows the character and belief in there. "One of the last things I said as we walked out, look at the physical presence we have and look at the experience we have in this changing room. I thought we were brilliant to a man tonight." Cliftonville manager Jim Magilton said: "I think Limavady deserved to win the game. We didn't do enough. We didn't make their keeper work enough. We got off to a good start, probably against the run of play, and it gave us a platform, you'd think, to go on, given our recent run of results. But we didn't have enough. We looked as if for 45 minutes we were still on the bus. "We didn't move the ball anywhere near quick enough. We didn't do what we'd been doing really well. We didn't attack in numbers, we didn't defend in numbers and our spaces were wide open. "We can't concede the goals we conceded, one was set-piece and the other a free header. They capitalised on that and they had something to protect. They're going to do that and they were throwing bodies on the line. We never tested their goalkeeper, so that's massively disappointing for us."