LINFIELD HIT BACK TO GET PAST REDS
Two quickfire goals saw Linfield hit back from going behind to defeat Cliftonville at Windsor Park.
After a relatively cagey start to proceedings it was Linfield that created much of the initial pressure, with Kyle McClean forcing David Odumosu into a save at his near post after a quarter-of-an-hour.
At the other end a short time later Axel Piesold had a go from the edge of the area before play switched for McClean to test Odumosu with another strong strike.
As the first half progressed Odumosu was once again called into action to deny Joel Cooper from distance before, on 39 minutes, the Reds keeper produced an outstanding save to push a Chris Shields' penalty - awarded after Piesold had brought down Cooper - around the post.
Play was equally as cautious after the break but, on 76 minutes, the deadlock was eventually broken when Aran Pettifer's cross from the right found Joe Gormley who still needed to do a bit of work to get the ball onto his right foot before firing into the bottom corner.
However Linfield hit back just five minutes after that through McClean after he ran onto a Cooper ball into the area to sweep the equaliser past Odumosu.
Then, barely sixty seconds after that, the Blues moved in front after Matthew Fitzpatrick got on the end of the ball to fire home from an acute angle on the right.
Linfield: Walsh, Roscoe, East, Shields, McClean, Cooper, Allen, Ballantyne, McGee, Fitzpatrick, Orr subs Johns, McKee, Archer, McCullough, Annett, McKay, Thompson
Cliftonville: Odumosu, Pepper, Addis, Kearney, Hale, Curran, Conlan, Piesold, Gormley, Glynn, Keaney subs Ridd, Pettifer, Ojo, Lowe, McGuinness, Corrigan, Madden
Substitution 
Substitution 
