Saturday 7th November 2020, Kick Off 5.30pm
Tomorrow we welcome in form Larne to the Oval for what will be the first of two meetings between the clubs in the next few weeks.
Larne's 2-1 win at Inver Park in January, thanks to Johnny McMurray's late strike, was their first over Glentoran since 1987. Indeed the 1986/87 Season is the last time Larne finished above the Glens in the Irish League. The restructuring of the League from 1 to 2 Divisions in 1995 saw them demoted to the new First Division and the club remained there until 2003, when the IPL was re-expanded from 12 to 16 clubs.
Following this, a brief period of success was enjoyed by the Invermen - reaching the 2003/4 League Cup Final and 2004/5 Irish Cup Final. However, both big occasions ended in defeat and demotion was experienced again in 2008 when yet another League restructure saw the club fail to make the cut for the new 12 team setup. Another prolonged spell in the second tier followed, before Kenny Bruce's extensive investment in the club gave them a platform to win the Championship by some distance in 2019.
Larne have a large squad to choose from - including ex Glens midfielder John Herron. Former Milton Keynes defender Ben Tilney remains injured while Conor McKendry has returned to training but is not yet match fit. Striker Johnny McMurray returned from a long injury layoff as an 83rd minute substitute v Linfield in Tuesday's County Antrim Shield victory.
Glentoran won both encounters at the Oval last season, recovering from going behind to Jeff Hughes' early strike to win 2-1 in the early September League fixture thanks to Paul O'Neill and a late winner from Captain Marcus Kane. In the Country Antrim Shield tie the following month, the Glens again found themselves behind (David McDaid the scorer this time) but eventually managed to run out 3-2 winners after extra time with Navid Nasseri, Elvio Van Overbeek and Darren Murray providing the goals.
Mick McDermott: “Tuesday night’s win at Cliftonville was a big boost to the players and fans and it’s great to be in our second senior cup final in four months. I thought it was an excellent game of football between two good teams playing with a lot of intensity. It took us a while to settle as we had to shuffle things around a bit to accommodate a couple of missing players. But once we did I thought we controlled the second half fairly well and it was a great team goal that won it for us, brilliantly worked by the three or four players involved and an excellent finish from Dale.
Our last meeting saw very similar cruciate injuries to Hrvoje Plum and Larne’s Johnny McMurray. I was pleased to see Johnny make his return for Larne on Tuesday night and I’m even more please to report that Hrvoje has been in full training with the rest of the squad for three weeks now and is looking great. The only difficulty for him is that the Seconds haven’t been playing, otherwise he would have been playing for them for the past couple of weeks But with our next two games postponed because of internationals, we’ve arranged a behind closed doors match to get him some worthwhile playing time. He’s been striking dead balls in training and he clearly hasn’t lost any of his sharpness there.
Tuesday’s win at Solitude has strengthened the belief in the players going into what should be a very good match today. Larne have started the season well so it’s a good challenge. We played them four times last season so we’re very familiar with them and we know how they play. They’re well drilled, well coached and good in possession. Could turn out to be a cracker because we had a few crackers against them last year. We’re well up for it.”
Prior to tomorrow's match there will be a ceremony of Remembrance on the pitch, involving the Chairmen, Chaplains and reprsentative players for both teams. This will include a minute's silence to commemorate those who have fallen in conflict. This will take place at 5.20pm.
The Away end Milkbar will be open at this match, selling hot drinks cold drinks sausage rolls and confectionery. There will be a queuing system based on social distancing to which all Milkbar customers must adhere. Jodie and the catering team have taken all the safety steps to ensure everyone's safety, and we ask that everyone disposes of their rubbish in bins provided throughout the Oval.
A reminder that only season holders groups B and C will be admitted to tomorrow's match. There will be no GlensTV live stream as the match will be streamed live by BBC Northern Ireland here
