Cliftonville Manager Jim Magilton Anticipates Further Improvement from Squad

Cliftonville manager Jim Magilton has expressed his expectation for his team to show further improvement during the latter half of the Irish Premiership season. This comes despite the Reds currently holding second place in the standings, trailing leaders Linfield by seven points. Last season, Magilton led his squad to their first Irish Cup victory since 1979. The Reds’ recent form includes only one defeat in their last eight league matches. They are scheduled for a challenging away fixture against Portadown at Shamrock Park this Saturday. Magilton stated, “I know we are capable of more. If I thought we were at the height of our powers then I’d worry.” He added, “I think there’s more to come from all the players and obviously we’ll be looking to strengthen in January to make us better.” The club, which won the Irish Cup, saw the departure of several notable attacking players, including Ronan Hale, Sam Ashford, and Ben Wilson, during the summer transfer window. However, Joe Gormley has been a prolific scorer, leading the league’s scoring charts with 14 goals in the 2024-25 Premiership campaign to date. Magilton commented, “A lot outside of the four walls of our changing room was made of it [losing the forward trio] and quite rightly in terms of the quality of the lads that had performed so well for us.” He continued, “But I always had great faith in the players that we retained. “I knew that once we found some consistency in our play we could create scoring opportunities and given the scoring prowess that we still retain at the club I knew that they would score goals, and notably Joe. He’s had a fantastic first half of the season.”” Furthermore, the north Belfast club has demonstrated defensive solidity, having conceded only 17 goals across their 18 league matches thus far. Magilton further stated, “The foundation of any good team is not conceding goals and building on that, reducing the opposition to as few opportunities as possible.” He explained, “We had a lot of changes [in the summer] and it took players a little bit longer than we anticipated to settle into the club and into the league.” Magilton concluded, “Once we got that consistency we had a little spell where we played extremely well in one or two games, where I thought we had total control and saw the games out in a really controlled manner. That gave us great confidence.”