Irish League Football

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Carrick Rangers manager Stephen Baxter says goalkeeper Nathan Gartside should take "no blame" for the error which led to Glentoran's late winner at the Oval.

Gartside spilled Aaron McEneff's corner with MJ Kamson Kamara poking home the loose ball for the only goal of the game, but Baxter rushed to the defence of his goalkeeper who had earlier pulled off some huge saves.

Indeed, the Carrick boss was happy with how his side performed in east Belfast and while disappointed with the defeat, he could have no complaints with their endeavour.

"I'm exceptionally proud of the team," Baxter told BBC Sport NI.

"Glentoran have exceptional players to bring on from their bench to change football matches and did that tonight.

"We had matched them stride for stride defensively, shut down their passing lanes and were able to frustrate them in many ways.

"The blunder you will talk about with Nathan dropping the ball into the net is hugely frustrating for him, but he has made three brilliant saves. While he's hugely disappointed, there's no blame attached from me - that's the life of a goalkeeper."

Baxter paid further tribute to his players including Joe Moore who returned from Scotland after the funeral of his grandfather to play on Tuesday, while he also revealed defender Billy Joe Burns played through injury and after a number of days attending to his sick child.

"I'm extremely pleased with the efforts and have thanked the team for their performances over the last two months with a small squad," he added.

"Some have played when they shouldn't have so that says it all about the commitment."

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Glentoran manager Declan Devine says it was a "huge three points" for his side after defeating Carrick Rangers 1-0 at the Oval.

MJ Kamson-Kamara netted seven minutes from time to clinch victory for the dominant hosts.

The win moves the east Belfast side up to second in the Premiership standings and five points behind leaders Larne.

"It's a massive win, because we would have been really frustrated if it ended 0-0 or even worse," said Devine.

"We were relentless in our pursuit of the goal, which also left us a bit open on the counter-attack.

"The pleasing thing for me was that we never got frustrated, we kept going right to the end.

"I said to the lads at half-time that it might go to the last 10-15 minutes and I was right - it's getting that first goal, which is really difficult against a low block.

"We 100% deserved the victory and that's testimony to the players. I's a huge three points."

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Kevin Crossan has been named the new chairman of Cliftonville FC.

Crossan's appointment comes after former chairman Keiran Harding stood down last month alongside directors David Begley and Adrian Keenan.

Their departure came after the Toronto Investment Group (TIG) withdrew their investment proposal in the Irish Premiership club.

In a statement on Monday, external, the north Belfast club confirmed that Crossan was nominated unopposed at their Extraordinary General Meeting.

Club members also elected Anthony Donnelly to the position of Stadium Director.

Previous chairman Harding had been in the role for two years but left following disagreements between the board and supporters during the proposed TIG takeover.

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Linfield manager David Healy says that top goalscorer Matthew Fitzpatrick "wants to stay" at the club.

Healy was speaking after speculation that Fitzpatrick may have to leave the Blues at the end of the season due to work commitments.

Fitzpatrick has scored 17 goals during 31 appearances in the Irish Premiership this season.

"The news broke and it is something we are aware of and something we have spoken to Matthew about," Healy told BBC Sport NI.

"It is something we will discuss over the next little while with Matthew. At the end of the day, he is in control of it and will make the big decision.

"I know he wants to stay, he has been fully committed since he came here and it is a decision we will look at."

It was a challenging weekend for the Blues, whose 10-game unbeaten run in the league came to an end after a 2-0 loss against Cliftonville.

Healy added that his side's performance as "unacceptable" with Linfield now eight points behind the Inver Reds at the top of the table.

"Poor performance, shocking result," he continued.

"Overall, unacceptable and not good enough. We fell way short of the demands to play for this football club.

"We didn't deserve to win the game."

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Cliftonville manager Jim Magilton said his side "deserved" their 2-0 victory over Linfield at Solitude.

Shaun Leppard's goal in the 64th minute gave the home side the lead before Joe Gormley scored in the final seconds.

The result means that the Reds leapfrog Carrick Rangers and move back into the top six of the Irish Premiership.

"First half, neither side really took advantage. I thought we created good opportunities but didn't capitalise," Magilton told BBC Sport NI.

"We started the second half on the front foot. We knew we would have to withstand pressure from Linfield because of the quality of player. We defended for our lives today.

"I thought the second half we played really well and probably deserved it."

Leppard broke the deadlock at Solitude for his second goal of the campaign with Magilton adding that he was "over the moon" that the defender scored.

"Shaun has all the attributes to be an outstanding player," he continued.

"He has probably struggled a bit with inconsistency, but he has had a run of games and hopefully this is the start of something for Shaun. I think he should be scoring a lot more goals from set pieces.

"I am delighted for him, absolutely over the moon."

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Linfield manager David Healy says his side's 1-1 draw at Larne was "frustrating".

The Blues fell behind at Inver Park to Leroy Millar's first-half goal, but responded early in the second half through Adam Frizzell.

Despite having numerical advantage in the closing stages when Millar was shown a red card, the champions could not find a winner but Healy felt a draw was probably a fair outcome.

"Going in one behind at half-time was probably frustrating as I thought we had the three best chances in the first half," Healy told BBC Sport NI.

"We needed the goal to get back into it and we were on the front foot after that without ever really dominating or creating many goal opportunities.

"We probably just didn't do enough to win the game."

While Larne boss Gary Haveron was unhappy with Millar's dismissal, Healy felt there was no malice in the Larne midfielder's challenge on Ethan McGee.

"I thought it was a tough tackle," he opined.

"I've known Leroy from his time at Ballymena - a big, strong honest boy and I think he just mistimed the tackle."

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Larne manager Gary Haveron felt referee Christopher Morrison "couldn't wait" to produce the red card for Leroy Millar in his side's 1-1 draw against Linfield.

Millar, who had given the Inver Park side a first-half lead, was shown red in the 78th-minute for lunging into Ethan McGee which saw his net come to a premature end.

Haveron felt the midfielder had looked back to his best prior to his sending off and will review the incident.

"Leroy would be the first to say he hasn't been at his best in recent weeks but he got about his work tonight and it was a very good performance," Haveron told BBC Sport NI.

"He's gone in for a block tackle and the referee has sprinted over to send him off, couldn't wait to get over there.

"It's disappointing because it impacts on the game and because his individual performance was excellent. We'll have to look back at it and go through a process."

The draw saw Larne move three clear at the top of the table from Coleraine, with Linfield a further two points behind in third.

Following disappointing defeats by Portadown and Carrick Rangers, the Larne boss was happy his side found a response against the Blues despite now going four league games without a win.

"We know our last couple of performances haven't been good enough and I have to take full responsibility," he added.

"We had to bounce back from that and show our fans what it means to play for the football club and I thought we did that."