Tuesday 2nd November
7.45pm Kick Off
Larne's 2-1 win against us at Inver Park. in January 2020, 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, though the Inver Men came close to ending that unwanted record last season, until in the penultimate game of last season a goal just after half time by Conor McMenamin secured a 1-0 Glens win at Inver Park and with it a third-place finish and automatic qualification for
The earlier game at Inver, at the end of January, finished in a 1-1 draw after Robbie McDaid scored early in the second half to cancel out Jeff Hughes’ 24th minute opener, while we have of course already faced Tiernan Lynch’s side this season on their home turf, going down 2-1 last month in the County Antrim Shield. Of course that was with a much-changed side against a virtually full-strength Larne.
Midfielders Dean Jarvis and Andrew Mitchell missed Saturday’s win at Ballymena and Jeff Hughes is likely to continue partnering Kofi Balmer in the heart of defence with the experienced Cian Bolger having missed the last 5 weeks due to injury. Striker David McDaid will be hoping for a recall to the side, after having to settle for appearances from the bench in the past two fixtures. Ronan Hale is the most likely to make way should the ex-Cliftonville and Derry City man be called up.
Larne are unbeaten at Inver Park in the league so far this season, beating Coleraine and bottom side Warrenpoint and drawing with East Antrim rivals Carrick and Linfield. A win tomorrow evening would put Lynch’s side second in the table and they could even go top on goal difference, should leaders Cliftonville lose their game against Portadown at Solitude.
We are three points behind Larne after ten games, so this is the very definition of a six pointer.
There are still some tickets available for tomorrow night's game. They can be bought HERE on the Larne website.
All Glentoran supporters will be seated in the P&O FERRIES/LARNE PORT MCKAY STAND. Enter via Church Road only
Mick McDermott: “I thought we thoroughly deserved our win at Carrick on Friday night. I thought we created enough chances to win much more comfortably, but credit to Carrick, they know how to put teams under pressure, but we weathered that well and were comfortably in control of the match. The quality of our two goals was brilliant.
People have mentioned the change we made with Luke moving to midfield. That’s where he played for Tranmere, and it was always likely we would play him in that number six role at some point. He did very well there, and it also gave Caolan Marron the chance to play his more established position at centre half beside Paddy, where he was superb. It meant we had a back four with all four playing it what would be seen as their natural positions, and it worked very well for us.
Larne is always a tough game, either home or away, but we’re going into this in a very upbeat frame of mind. It’s a good stadium, a good pitch and there’s always a good atmosphere when our supporters go there. It’ll be different from Friday’s match as Larne are more of a footballing side and that suits us as so are we. We know we’ll have to perform at the top of our game to get the result we want.”
