Wednesday 2nd December 2020, 7.45pm
Tomorrow night we head over to Seaview to compete to win our second trophy in a row when we face Larne in the Final of the Toal’s County Antrim Shield.
This will be Glentoran's first Co Antrim Shield Final since the 2011/12 season, when we were defeated 2-1 at the Oval by Cliftonville. Our most recent win in the competition came in the season prior to that - winning 3-1 against Linfield at Windsor Park, exactly ten years ago this week. On a freezing late November night in 2010, the injury-hit Glens took an early lead through an Andy Waterworth penalty, before strike partner Matty Burrows capitalised on a mistake by Chris Casement to put Glentoran further in control. An 84th minute Billy Joe Burns goal gave Linfield hope, but an emphatic finish by Grant Gardiner a few minutes later sealed the win and brought the Shield back to the Oval for a 26th time.
Poignantly, the Glens manager for that last victory was Scott Young, who has been in all our thoughts these past few days after the tragic passing of his wife, Eleanor, last week.
The 2010 Shield winning Glens team
In contrast to Glentoran, opponents Larne will be looking to lift the Shield for the first time in their history. The Invermen have reached the Final on 3 previous occasions but have lost each time, most recently a 2-1 defeat to Crusaders in the 1973\74 Season. Tiernan Lynch's men remain unbeaten in the league and sit top of the table following their impressive 2-0 win away to Coleraine on Saturday and Linfield's shock defeat at Warrenpoint. Conor McKendry and Ben Tilney are still not match fit, but Lynch should otherwise have a full squad to choose from.
We have played Larne five times since their return to the Premiership last season – three wins for the Glens, one for Larne and one draw. A later Darren Murray goal gave the Glens a 3-2 win at the Oval in a very even quarter final of last year’s Shield. So the two sets of players will be very familiar with each other.
Mick McDermott: “This match with Larne presents us with a great opportunity to show the strength of our squad. With 4 games in 11 days that is vitally important and why it’s necessary to have a strong squad with a choice of quality players. Our players will represent Glentoran well at Seaview tomorrow night.”
