Saturday 1st May 2021
Kick Off 3.00pm
For the first time in a decade the Big Two meet as the league’s Top Two at this stage of the season, in a match that would unquestionably have led to a full and very noisy Oval. As with each game in recent weeks, this is another 6-pointer with the Glens needing to eat further into what is currently a 7-point lead for the Blues at the top of the table.
Glentoran have won 3 of the last 4 League meetings between the teams at the Oval, most recently the 3-1 victory at the start of March - Jay Donnelly and Connor McMenamin netting in the first half and Rhys Marshall grabbing his first for the club in the second half to secure the points after Stephen Fallon's goal just before the break had threatened to give Linfield a way back into the contest.
While Linfield's form at The National Stadium has been formidable this season (Glentoran are the only side to leave with 3 points so far, thanks to that late Conor McMenamin goal in February) their form on the road has been much less convincing, with 6 defeats and 2 draws in the 16 played to date. Last Saturday's 3-2 defeat against Glenavon at Mourneview Park was a first league defeat in 6 for David Healy’s team and has left them looking over their shoulders again at 7 points ahead of the Glens with 15 points left to play for. The Glens are currently on a 10-game unbeaten run, and go into this game on the back of two hard fought and highly deserved wins against Cliftonville and Larne,
Healy made several changes for the midweek Irish Cup game against Annagh United but is likely to recall Jordan Stewart and Shayne Lavery after both only featured as subs in that game, the latter scoring the second goal in that 2-0 victory. Captain Jamie Mulgrew was given a full 90-minute run out as he steps up his comeback from injury and will be in contention for a central midfield berth alongside Cameron Palmer or Stephen Fallon.
Mick McDermott: “It's great to have a Big Two match at the Oval at this stage of the season. All the games recently have been exciting but tough, no matter where the opposition has been in the table. But derby games are always special even though this time we have no fans at the game. It's just very sad that in recent weeks in particular the fans have missed some great games. we probably would have had a full house here against Larne last week and we definitely would have had one on Saturday for such a big match against our biggest rivals.
All the outfield players are healthy and available apart from Conor McMenamin who we expect to be back within the next couple of weeks, and Hrvoje who injured his knee slightly at Cliftonville, We haven’t needed to motivate the players for this week just as we haven't had to motivate them for any of our games recently. There’s a great belief in this group, as they demonstrated in coming from behind to win against a very good Larne side last week. We are all going into this one with a very strong belief that we can do what is necessary to achieve what we want to achieve on Saturday and for the rest of the season”.
As there will be no supporters permitted entry to this match, supporters are reminded that they can access our GlensTV live stream of the match by signing up here. Live match coverage can be purchased for £7 (which includes access to a full replay of the action), while a delayed stream will cost £3. Remember, our stream will commence just after 2.30 with a match preview programme, and our match commentator Aaron Agnew will be accompanied as co-commentator by our legendary, quadruple title winning skipper Paul Leeman. For this match there will also be live input from Leeper’s long-time rival and multi title winning Linfield captain Michael Gault.
This match has been kindly sponsored by GFC 1882 Director and Glentoran Supporter Liaison Officer Colin Davidson.
