Glentoran return to Premiership action tomorrow as they travel to Dungannon Swifts to put behind a miserable mid-week Toal's Senior Shield display.
The Glens were dumped out of the Toal's Senior Shield on Tuesday night with a first round defeat to fellow East Belfast outfit H&W Welders, losing 4-3 in penalties after the game ended goalless.
This defeat further compounds misery on Eddie Patterson’s men as they lost to Cliftonville at Solitude last Saturday. Defender Marcus Kane was given his marching orders before David McDaid scored a late header to snatch three points and give Gerard Lyttle his first win as interim boss.
Glentoran will be hoping to avenge two defeats on the bounce against the Swifts who have also been struggling for consistency this season. Despite picking up the same amount of wins as the Glens, they sit in tenth place in the Danske Bank Premiership.
After a poor start to the season, the Dungannon side have improved with four points in their last two games. They were unfortunate to settle for a 3-3 draw against Portadown at Shamrock Park last week. Swifts manager Darren Murphy was left furious with referee Raymond Crangle who dismissed any protests that Andrew Mitchell was brought down unfairly while bearing down at goal by Ports last man Ken Oman at the edge of the box.
Glentoran went throughout last season’s campaign undefeated against the Swifts, collecting all three wins in the process. The pick of the games came back in December last year, as Niall Henderson late header for the Glens was enough to edge a five goal thriller to win 3-2 at Stangmore Park.
With only a point to separate the sides, the East Belfast club will be looking to take maximum points to build a gap away from the bottom end of the Danske Bank Premiership and pull themselves back into the mix at the higher end of the table.
Following his dismissal at Solitude, Marcus Kane was suspended for last Tuesday night’s fixture but should return to Saturday’s starting line up. Jay Magee and summer signing Ciaran Caldwell though remain ineligible. Midfielder Kym Nelson’s foot has been put into cast and it will be approximately 6 weeks before he can resume training.
Nathan Webb