Newry City bounced back from a heavy reversal last week to claim the points from Cliftonville’s visit to The Showgrounds.
The first half was, by and large, bereft of decent scoring efforts and even the best chance of the opening 30 minutes, a Chris Curran attempt after he dispossessed Darren King on the right produced a tame finish.
Curran was involved again not long before the break with a great ball behind the Newry defence to find Joe Gormley but the home rearguard combined to deal with the danger.
What proved to be the only goal of the game arrived on 52 minutes when, from a Mark Hughes free-kick from the left, John Boyle connected with the ball to turn a header through the legs of keeper Richard Brush.
Cliftonville’s afternoon got even worse sixty seconds or so after that with the dismissal of Jamie Harney for bringing down Stefan Lavery just outside the box after he raced on to a Conall Delaney through ball.
Newry might have doubled their advantage with just over a quarter-of-an-hour remaining only for Aaron Donnelly to clear a King effort off the line.
Another chance followed later in the game when Mark McCabe beat Liam Bagnall to a throw-in but, with just the keeper to beat, he couldn’t direct the ball on target.

BBC Sport NI coverage: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45385330

Newry City: Coleman, King, Noonan, Boyle, McCann, Carville, M. Hughes, S. Hughes, Lavery, Teggart, Montgomery subs Walker (not used), McCabe (replaced Lavery 65), McCaul (not used), Rushe (not used), Delaney (replaced Teggart 46), McArdle (not used), Healy (not used)
Cliftonville: Brush, Ives, Breen, Harney, C. Curran, Garrett, McDonald, Bagnall, Catney, Gormley, J. Donnelly subs McGovern (not used), R. Curran (replaced Garrett 55), Neeson (not used), McConnell (not used), Lavery (not used), Maguire (replaced McDonald 55), A. Donnelly (replaced Breen 46)