Friday 17th December
7.45pm Kick Off
On Friday night we welcome Glenavon on Gary Hamilton's tenth anniversary as manager in Lurgan,
Glenavon have been in good form in recent weeks; in the last five games they have recorded four wins (keeping a clean sheet in each of those) with the only blot on their copybook a 3-0 home defeat to Linfield at the end of November. Striker Matthew Fitzpatrick in particular has been enjoying a productive season to date, scoring eight goals in seventeen appearances and netting the winner in last Saturday’s 1-0 win at Mourneview Park against Coleraine.
Former Northern Ireland midfielder Michael O’Connor missed the win over the Bannsiders because of suspension, while defender Mark Haughey looks set for an extended spell on the sidelines with a hamstring injury. Despite now being into his 40’s, Hamilton has named himself on the substitutes bench because of injuries to Jack O’Mahoney and Conor McCloskey leaving him short on available numbers. It’s five ex-Glentoran players - James Taylor, Sean Ward, Andy Hall, Calum Birney and Andy Waterworth - will all feature in the starting eleven
After winning in both the League and League Cup at Mourneview Park earlier in the season, this will be our first meeting with Glenavon at the Oval this term. The last game back in March saw Glenavon take a first half lead after an unfortunate Luke McCullough own goal, which was swiftly cancelled out by Jay Donnelly 2 minutes later. A smart finish by Dale Gorman 5 minutes before the interval turned the game back in our favour and Donnelly grabbed his second of the game in the final 10 minutes to seal a 3-1 win.
Mick McDermott: I was very pleased with our away win over Carrick Rangers last weekend. We scored three quality goals, kept another clean sheet and came away with three more points. So I can have no complaints and nothing but praise for the players. We knew how physically hard Carrick were going to make it for us, and they did, but I thought we matched them and the quality we all know we have come out over the course of the ninety minutes.
It was great to see Shay McCartan do so well, scoring his first goal for us and playing a very big part in Jay’s second. It was going to take a bit of time for Shay to get up to full fitness after a lengthy lay off, but I think he showed at Carrick that he’s nearly there and he also showed what we can all look forward to seeing over the rest of the season.
I’m delighted Robbie had his appeal upheld against his red card at Carrick. He had a good goal disallowed that was a clean header with no impact on the keeper and was then given a most inexplicable red card after jumping cleanly to win a header in the middle of the park. Two terrible pieces of luck for him.
It’s always a pleasure to welcome Glenavon to the Bet McLean Oval. Since I’ve been here, our games with them have generally been pretty tight with little between the two teams. They had an excellent win over Coleraine at Mourneview last week and already this season we’ve had a couple of close matches with them at Mourneview, both of which we managed to win. They have a good squad of players and are always capable of frustrating teams higher up the table. But with our current run of form we can go into this one in a very positive frame of mind.”
Unfortunately, we are unable to stream this match due to a NIFL rule that states no club will be permitted to stream a Premiership match if the match in question is being played simultaneously with a competing broadcast by Sky Sports, BBC NI or the BBC Sport website. As Larne v Linfield is on BBC this rule impacts on our game.
Covid Restrictions: Matchday Lounge Patrons
The following restrictions remain in force for entrance to the Premier Lounge and Ron Manley Legends Suite.
To gain entry to any of our licensed lounges it will be necessary to show either:
- A current valid covid certificate on the COVIDCertNI app
- A printed copy of your certificate along with photo ID
- The record card you received at your first vaccination appointment, confirming two vaccinations
- Evidence of a current valid negative NHS Covid Test on your smartphone.
These restrictions will not apply to the Milk Bar or Superstore.
All other supporters attending home matches will NOT be required to show evidence of vaccination or a negative Covid test.
We strongly recommend that face covering be used at all in stairwells and when entering the bar area.
If you have any questions on this temporary policy, you can email the club at Covidassist@glentoran.com
You can request a downloaded Covid certificate at https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/services/apply-domestic-covid-vaccination-certificate
As always at home matches, we strongly request that supporters respect the rights of the local residents by parking well away from housefronts in the immediate locality. There is plenty of available parking at the Holywood Arches Heath Centre.
