Saturday 2nd October 2021
Kick Off 3.00pm
Glentoran travel to Lurgan on Saturday seeking to secure a first league win at Mourneview Park since February 2016 - Curtis Allen scoring twice, either side of a Kevin Braniff equaliser, before Jonathan Smith added a third in injury time to put the seal on a 3-1 victory for Alan Kernaghan’s side that went very much against the run of form of both clubs at the time. Our last win there was in the European playoff semi final in May 2019 when goals from Darren Murray (2), Robbie McDaid and Curtis Allen gave us a 4-2 win in our best performance of that season. The Glenavon goals were long range efforts from Caolan Marron and Andrew Mitchell!
Back in March, our last visit ended in a disappointing 2-1 defeat, with goals in the last 20 minutes from ex Linfield and Portadown midfielder Robbie Garrett and striker Mathew Fitzpatrick undoing a first half lead secured by a goal from Rory Donnelly. Prior to this, 6 of the 7 most recent clashes there had ended in draws, so Mick McDermott’s team will be under no illusions that a difficult task awaits if we want to secure a much needed win.
Gary Hamilton’s side have made an inconsistent start to the season, securing a big away win against Warrenpoint and a credible home draw with Linfield, but also losing heavily to Carrick Rangers and failing to win any of their opening 3 home games to date. The shock early season decision by former Glentoran striker Danny Purkis to seek a return to Amateur League football has left Hamilton shorter of forward options than he had planned, and injury to promising winger Peter Campbell has further blunted their attacking threat.
Defender Callum Birney returned to the side in Tuesday’s loss to Larne and should retain his place with Andrew Doyle suspended. Full back James Singleton could also miss out again through injury and both Kyle Beggs and Conor McCloskey could be doubtful after being substituted against the Inver Reds., which could pave the way for the experienced Michael O’Connor and Andy Hall to return to the staring 11.
Mick McDermott: “Tuesday night’s defeat was very disappointing. Its always particularly disappointing to lose a derby game. I felt in the first half we created the better chances and had plenty of the play. I thought in that half we were the better team but still went in 2 down because of two poorly conceded goals. One was a series of errors and the other a set piece where someone didn’t pick up their man. Those are things we can work on, put right and move on. Even in the second half we created a few good chances, but if you don’t put them away and then concede poor goals, you’re not going to win games. But the players never gave up. They kept going but couldn’t get a result. That’s the disappointing part but we move on to Saturday.
In my 2 seasons here Mourneview has always been a tough place to visit. We’ve had some good results there but also some poor ones. Even this season Glenavon have shown they can get results against better teams like Linfield, but also can struggle as when they lost heavily to Carrick. So there’s an unpredictability there but they’re usually motivated when the bigger clubs like Glentoran visit, so we’ll need to be well prepared and on our game.”
Remember this match is all ticket. Tickets can be purchased HERE on the Glenavon website.
