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)

Two Stephen Hughes penalties saw Newry City claim their first win of the season with victory over Dungannon Swifts at The Showgrounds.
The Swifts squandered a gilt-edged opportunity to open the scoring midway through the first half when Daniel Hughes was upended by Darren King. Hughes took the subsequent spot-kick himself but City keeper Andy Coleman correctly dived low to his right to make the save.
Ally Teggart then came close soon after for Dungannon but could only pull his effort wide while, just after the half-hour mark, Kris Lowe was denied by another Coleman stop.
At the other end Mark McCabe crafted Newry’s first effort of note with a ball just over the bar.
Douglas Wilson might have opened the scoring for the Swifts early in the second half with two efforts at goal during a goalmouth scramble before the Newry defence took control.
The deadlock was almost broken just after the hour when Swifts keeper Alex Moore pulled off a great save to deny Stephen Hughes.
However, Hughes soon hit back with two successfully converted spot-kicks in five minutes.
His first, on 67 minutes, was awarded following a Jarlath O’Rourke push on Declan Carville. He then doubled Newry’s lead after Carville was again impeded, this time by Jake Dykes.
Despite pushing hard to salvage something from the game Dungannon could only point to a late O’Rourke strike from the edge of the area by way of consolation.

BBC Sport NI coverage: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45149631

Newry City: Coleman, Mooney, King, Noonan, Boyle, McCann, Carville, McCabe, S. Hughes, M. Hughes, Teggart subs Maguire (not used), Lavery (replaced Teggart 81), Johnston (replaced S. Hughes 85), Delaney (not used), Montgomery (replaced Carville 84), McArdle (not used), Healy (not used)
Dungannon Swifts: Moore, Dykes, Wilson, Armstrong, Hughes, McMullan, Harpur, Teggart, O’Rourke, Lowe, Coyle subs Addis (not used), McElroy (replaced McMullan 70), Patton (replaced Teggart 70), Soares (not used), Burke (not used), McAllister (not used), Campbell (replaced Armstrong 59)