Newry City 1-0 Cliftonville

Eddie Patterson sees his team's title chances slipping away

Cliftonville's Carnegie Premier League title challenge looks to have imploded after they crashed to a second straight defeat in Tuesday's clash at Newry.

Paddy McLaughlin headed the winner and the Reds are now five points behind Linfield with only four games left.

After a scoreless first half, Francis Murphy and George McMullan were denied by Robert Robinson after half-time.

McLaughlin nodded a Richard Clarke free-kick to the net on 61 minutes and the Reds could not force an equaliser.

Cliftonville created a number of chances but they were not displaying the free-flowing football which has characterised much of their season.

Chris Scannell went close for the Reds with a curling effort on 13 minutes while John Martin then tested Newry goalkeeper Robinson.

However, Newry also looked dangerous in the first half and McLaughlin had a close-range effort blocked and Emmett Friars was unable to get any purchase on the rebound.

Robinson made fine saves to deny Murphy and McMullan after the break and Cliftonville's worst fears were then realised when McLaughlin scored at the other end.

Chris Scannell looked set to equalise only for goalscorer McLaughlin to produce a brilliant tackle and Mark Holland's follow-up was stopped by Robinson.

As Cliftonville pressed for an equaliser, Newry had chances to kill off the game late on with Francis Murphy clearing Friars' effort off the line and Chris Morgan off-target in injury-time.