Ronan Hale’s extra-time double hands Cliftonville first Irish Cup win in 45 years

Two extra-time goals from Ronan Hale handed Cliftonville a first Irish Cup win in 45 years after a Titanic tussle with Linfield at Windsor Park.

The sides were locked together at the end of normal time after Ethan McGee’s 14th minute opener for the Blues was cancelled out by 52nd minute header from Cliftonville’s Sam Ashford.

However, just a minute into extra-time, Ronan Hale received the ball from Ben Wilson and dispatched a cracking right foot shot past Chris Johns in the Linfield goal.

As Linfield pushed for an equaliser in injury time at the end of the second half, they left their goal empty and the ball broke to Ronan Hale from a Blues corner and he was left with a free run in front of his own fans to slot in a third goal for the Reds.

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Linfield were on the front foot from the start, a smart move forcing a save from David Odumosu from a Chris McKee after just five minutes.

The Blues we’re having a lot of joy from wide areas, with Kirk Millar causing Cliftonville problems and it was his delivery that led to the opening goal on 14 minutes.

Linfield won a free wide on the right and Millar’s excellent delivery found the head of Ethan McGee on the edge of the six-yard box and he steered the ball past Odumosu.

The Reds had to weather more Linfield pressure after that but almost levelled on 25 minutes.

Rory Hale floated a ball onto the box which just eluded Ashford who was at full stretch at the back post.

Cliftonville were then forced to replace goalkeeper David Odumosu, who struggled to recover from a knock picked up in a collision with Joel Cooper. Nathan Gartside took over in goals for the Reds.

And the first half was to end on a sour note for the Reds as midfielder Odhran Casey suffered a serious a knee injury and was taken to hospital at half-time with Luke Kenny replacing him for the second half.

However, it was Cliftonville who started the second half the brighter and they were soon level on 52 minutes.

It was the same combination as their best chance of the first half, but on this occasion Sam Ashford managed to make a solid connection on Rory Hale’s right-wing cross to head it past Chris Johns.

The Reds had their tails up after that but despite having much of the possession in the final third, they couldn’t fashion a clear cut and it was Linfield who almost retook the lead when Joel Cooper flashed a shot across the face of goal on 67 minutes.

Injury again forced Cliftonville into a change when Sean Stewart had to be withdrawn in the 72nd minute to be replace by Stephen Mallon.

Linfield introduced the 16-year-old Everton-bound Braiden Graham with less than a quarter of an hour left. He almost made an instant impact, running onto a through ball from Joel Cooper, but Gartside was quickly out of the Reds goal to smother the danger.

Neither side could manage to trouble the respective defences for the rest of normal time and so the contest went to extra-time.

Extra-time was barely a minute old when Ronan Hale was picked out by Ben Wilson. Hale twisted and turned the Linfield defence before firing a sweet right-foot shot past Johns to put Cliftonville in to the lead for the first time in the final.

Linfield laid siege to the Cliftonville goal for most of the second period of extra-time, with the Reds getting the odd bit of relief on the break.

The Reds’ Ronan Doherty went down badly with cramp with around five minutes left, but with Jim Magilton having used up all his substitutes at this stage, he was forced to remain on the pitch as a virtual spectator for the dying minutes.

With less than a minute left in extra-time, Chris Curran bundled Joel Cooper over just on the edge of the box but Kirk Millar’s free kick flew just over the bar.

Then, as Linfield pushed for an equaliser, Ronan Hale was left with a free run on the Blues’ empty net to seal the win for the Reds.