Devine criticises 'embarrassing' Glens in Cliftonville loss

Glentoran boss Declan Devine branded his side's performance in their 2-0 defeat by Cliftonville as "embarrassing."

Goals from Stephen Mallon and Ronan Hale sealed the win for the Reds, a result which means the Glens cannot finish any higher than fifth this season.

They are also now winless in their last five games in all competitions.

"Over recent weeks it has become quite evident the team is broken," Devine said.

"I'm embarrassed about the performance, the [lack of] intensity and quality, everything about it, but it’s not surprising."

'Just horrendous'

Glentoran's last victory came against struggling Ballymena United at the end of March.

Since then, they have exited the Irish Cup at the semi-final stage against rivals Linfield and slipped to three consecutive league defeats, against Coleraine, Larne and now Cliftonville.

Devine admits that he is not absolved from blame in Glentoran's recent below-par displays, but believes the players must also take responsibility.

"I’m not taking the blame away from myself because I have put the team out there, but they can’t perform in the way they performed out there, at Coleraine last weekend, and in the semi-final of the Irish Cup. This club has to mean more than that," he said.

"It was quite evident in the performance levels that this squad is broken. I didn’t think Cliftonville had to do anything to win the game, like Coleraine last week, and it was totally unacceptable.

"Whether we win another game between now and the end of the season remains to be seen, but you certainly won’t with that application and lack of intensity we played with in a really important game.

"To have fans pay to come and watch that, I can just apologise to them because that is not the way I can lead a team out it is just horrendous."

'Back to the drawing board'

Glentoran have just one game of the league season left, a home fixture against Crusaders before attentions turn to the end of season European play-offs.

Devine is hoping for a response from his side and praised the impact of the young players who came on in the second half of the game at Solitude.

"The young players who came on gave us a hell of a lot more than we had in the first half, " admitted Devine.

"The first team panel isn’t pulling enough weight. I know there is talent there, and I know there are people already looking at where they will be in the coming months, but there is so no excuse for that performance.

"The play-offs, we need to have a good look at ourselves because we don’t have a chance if we play like this.

"The last two Saturdays have been nothing short of abysmal. Now it is back to the drawing board to see who wants to play and to fight for the club."