It looked to be plain sailing for the Reds after Celtic were reduced to ten men after just seven minutes when Gerard McCabe was dismissed for a foul on Liam Fleming.

However they were stunned barely two minutes later when Ciaran Donaghy handed the Hoops the lead with a powerful backpost header.

Cliftonville had to wait until the stroke of half-time to level through John Martin who got his foot to a Fleming ball which caused confusion in the DC defence.

They edged into the lead on 59 minutes when George McMullan blocked an attempted Ciaran Gargin clearance to send the ball past Stephen Harbinson.

Martin made it 3-1 six minutes later when Chris Scannell reached him with a cross before Mark Holland sidefooted home the fourth on 70 minutes.

Brother Barry then completed the scoring five minutes from time with a header following a poor Colm Kearney clearance.