Glentoran, having found results difficult to come by at Solitude for several years, managed a much better effort last season. Although we lost last season’s league opener to Ryan Curran’s late goal, the following 2 games both ended in away wins - Dale Gorman’s late goal securing victory in November’s County Antrim Shield Semi Final and second half Rory Donnelly and Ciaran O’Connor strikes ensuring a vital 2-0 league win back in April.
Manager Paddy McLaughlin moved today to sign ex Crusaders defender Colin Coates, after the former NI International was released by Glenavon. The 3 other permanent signings this summer will all be very familiar to Glentoran supporters - with winger Jamie McDonagh (as part of the deal that brought goalkeeper Aaron McCarey to the Oval) and midfielder Chris Gallagher being joined at Solitude by our former defender Johnny Addis following his departure from Ballymena United.
2 loan signings have also been brought in to add depth to the squad - 21 year old Goalkeeper Luke McNicholas from Sligo will compete with Declan Dunne to replace McCarey and Aberdeen youngster Luke Turner will add defensive competition.
With winger Daire O’Connor leaving for Scottish side Ayr United and right back Conor McDermott and midfielder Liam Bagnall having elected to take career breaks, McLaughlin’s side has a much different look to last season, but a familiar face has boosted hopes of an improvement on last year’s 5th place finish with record goal scorer Joe Gormley back after long term injury. They have recorded successive 2-1 home wins (against Carrick and Coleraine) in the opening week of the season to sit top of the early season table.
Missing through injury, though, are long serving defender Gary Breen and ex-Glentoran striker Paul O’Neill.
Mick McDermott: “We deserved last week’s win at Stangmore Park.
Dungannon played some attractive football for spells and are a talented team. But in the second half we had six chances to score, a fair goal disallowed from a Jay Donnelly header and a no-call on a clear penalty. It positive to create so many chances but we need to put them away otherwise a team like Dungannon can come back to bite you.
Cliftonville have played well and had positive results the first two games of this season. I watched them against Coleraine on Tuesday, and they deserved the win. They play an attractive brand of football, are well coached and can hurt you in multiple ways.
We are in no doubt that it will be a tough test going to Solitude and we will need to be at our best if we are to take the 3 Points”.
Remember this is an all-ticket match and no payment will be taken at the gate.
