Match day 14 in the Danske Bank Premiership sees Glentoran travel to Taylor’s Avenue to face Carrick Rangers.
Earlier in this campaign Carrick Rangers came to the Oval and defeated a lack lustre Glentoran 1-nil. It was Carrick’s first league victory over the Glens since 1993 and that game saw the East Belfast side go on a run which saw resulted in just one victory in the next eight league fixtures. With the change of manager Glentoran’s fortunes are beginning to turn around.
The U20 squad travelled to Solitude tonight for a league game and came away with a deserved 2-1 victory with both Glentoran goals coming from Joe O'Connor.
A frustrating evening for Glentoran culminated in a 2-1 extra time defeat to Irish League champions Crusaders on Tuesday night. The Glens were largely the better side throughout and undoubtedly created more clear cut openings than their opponents, however they coughed and spluttered in front of goal leaving the Oval faithful shocked at how their team lost the tie.
There was an air of optimism about the Oval this afternoon following valuable 3 points brought back from Dungannon last week.
Due to injury, Nacho Novo started in place of Curtis Allen, with Tiernan McAuley starting at right back, allowing James Ferrin to drop in for Jay Magee.
In front of a respectable crowd on a mild autumn day, the Glens lined up in their now familiar format with one man playing up front.
At Stangmore Park, Dungannon last weekend Jonathan Smith’s 90th minute penalty gave Glentoran their first league win since they defeated crisis club Portadown on 20th August.
This Saturday we face fourth placed Cliftonville in the Danske Bank Premiership and manager Gary Haveron will be looking to build on last weekend’s performance and hopefully achieve another positive result.
Another bumper edition of Northern Ireland's top match day programme goes on sale tomorrow. There's plenty for the historian as Roy Downes has a look at Glentoran's non-footballing past, Brian McClelland tells the tale of visitors from South America in the 1930s plus there's a remarkable team photograph from the Edwardian era. Sam Robinson has details of the launch of his brand new book, Sam Braik has a chat with Glentoran kit manager Aaron Foster, Eddy Patrick with a French ground hopper who has fallen in love with the Oval and there's news of a special Legends game against old rivals Li
Tonight manager, Gary Haveron had 6 Academy players train with the first team squad at the Oval.
Three of the players have been named in this year's Northern Ireland Victory Shield squad and the other three are on standby.
All six thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the fantastic reception they had from the first team squad.
1st East Belfast GSC presented seats to the Ballboys & Girls at the Oval prior to our home fixture v Ballinamallard United.
Members of the club are pictured here presenting the seats to Louise Sewell and the boys and girls.
Jonny Smith’s 90th minute penalty was enough to secure Glentoran’s first league win in 8 games and give Gary Haveron his first 3 points since taking charge. Glentoran were unchanged from last weekend’s draw with Ballinamallard Utd as they travelled to Stangmore Park to take on a confident Dungannon side who had score twelve goals in the space of a week. This was the first game of the second round of fixtures in this season's Danske Bank Premiership; the two sides met on the opening day of the season when Ciaran Caldwell scored the only goal of the game.
