The Seasiders might have raced into a three-goal lead inside the opening 20 minutes.

Andrew Morrow knocked the ball onto the inside of the bar while Dean Youle's attempted follow up was also headed against the woodwork.

And the bar rattled again soon after courtesy of a Paul McDowell effort while, later in the half, the Reds thought they had opened the scoring through a George McMullan free-kick only for the 'goal' to fall foul of the offside rule.

Then, right on the break, Cliftonville were awarded a penalty when Chris Boyd handled a Chris Scannell effort on the line - and collected a second yellow card for his trouble - only for Mark Patterson's spot-kick low to the right to be well saved by Ryan Brown.

However, the home fans only had to wait until the 18th minute of the second half to celebrate a goal when Mark Holland knocked on a McMullan corner for Chris Scannell to turn past Brown from close range.

It was 2-0 on 77 minutes when Mark Holland hit the post with his first attempt from a Patterson rebound before scrambling the ball over the line at the second time of asking.

Marty Verner grabbed an 85th minute consolation with an overhead kick for Bangor who have now gone seven games without a win.