On Saturday we aim for our third Danske Bank Premiership win of the season over Dungannon Swifts.
With the League split approaching, Dungannon Swifts find themselves in a fairly comfortable ninth position in the table; ten points clear of Portadown, who currently occupy the relegation play-off spot, and with a game in hand on all three teams below them. Despite losing highly rated Captain Oisin Smyth to Oxford United at the end of the transfer window, Dean Shiels’ side has continued to play positive football and pick up enough results to keep themselves clear of immediate danger. Tuesday night’s 3-2 win away to bottom side Warrenpoint ended a run of four consecutive defeats in all competitions and - crucially opened a 16-point gap over Barry Gray’s men.
Attacking midfielder Rhyss Campbell is in a rich vein of form at the moment, scoring three goals in his last two games to make him the Swifts joint league top scorer with eight so far. Shiels’ will be hoping that his other top marksman - exciting winger Darragh McBrien - may be fit to return after missing out since limping off during their Irish Cup win over Annagh United a month ago. He will also hope to have goalkeeper Declan Dunne back after calling upon veteran player-coach and former Glens stopper Dwayne Nelson to deputise in midweek. That game also saw Shiels’ give an Irish League debut to recent signing Bilel Mohsni, with the experienced former Rangers, Southend United and Tunisian International defender likely to feature again alongside another experienced defender signed in January; ex Portadown and Cliftonville man Garry Breen.
Glentoran have won on our last three league visits to Stangmore Park: most recently a 3-2 success on the opening day of this season at the end of August, with Robbie McDaid, Rory Donnelly and Conor McMenamin netting a goal each. The last Dungannon win was early in 2019/20, when a Seanan Clucas goal helped secure a 3-1 win over a new look Glens team.
Mick McDermott: “We did enough to at least get something from Tuesday night’s match with Cliftonville. On another night we could have scored three or four but should have had at least one on Tuesday. But credit to Cliftonville, they worked hard, dug in well defensively, but as I said after the match, we should have had the ball in the net at least once or twice.
For Saturday at Dungannon we have Paddy McClean and Joe Crowe available, plus Dillon Powers in the squad for the first time. It’ll be nice to get them on the pitch. Stangmore Park is always a difficult place to go. Swifts have both scored and conceded a lot of goals this season, so if you don’t go there in the right frame of mind they can hurt you. They are young, enthusiastic, well coached and are encouraged to play. But we know if we’re on our game we can cause plenty of problems for them. We’re only looking one game ahead right now, so this is another big one.”
Remember this game is pay at the gate.
