A first half goal blitz from the Glens and an unfortunate but serious looking 74th minute injury to Coleraine’s Adam Mullan dominated this second consecutive 3-0 Glentoran victory at the Bet McLean Oval.
Rodney McAree had unsurprisingly named an unchanged starting line up from last week’s win over Cliftonville, but a James Singleton knock in the pre match warm up meant Bobby Burns moving to left back in his place, with Hrvoje Plum returning in midfield.
Glentoran set the tone in the first minute when from a well worked corner by Conor McMenamin and Niall McGinn, Terry Devlin beat two Coleraine defender to head firmly home. Juniorcould have doubled the lead shortly after when he dispossessed a defender from a long ball from Aaron McCarey. But in a similar move to his opening goal last week, Junior was unable to finish this one.
Glens supporters didn’t have long to wait though. As Niall McGinn scored our second on 29 minutes. Conor McMenamin hit the post after great work by Rhys Marshall and Devlin and from the rebound the international winger was able to turn before launching an unstoppable drive past Gareth Deane in the Coleraine goal.
The Glens had further decent chances for Plum. McMenamin and Junior but the game was effectively over as a contest seven minutes before half time. Again Devlin was involved as after being sent away by Junior, he passed to McGinn who shot home another from a similar position for his ninth goal in seventeen appearances since signing in January.
Half Time: Glentoran 3-0 Coleraine
The second half was followed a similar pattern to last week as Coleraine started week and came into the game more without seriously troubling Aaron McCarey. They first meaningful chance of the half came on the hour when Andy Scott hit the crossbar.
But for all the hard work by Coleraine the Glens rarely looked in difficulty during the second half, with our best chance of the half falling to Hrvoje Plum after good left-wing work by Conor McMenamin, but Deane was quickly out to block before the midfielder could get his shot away.
The half’s major incident came on 74 minutes when Adam Mullan, a half time sub for Kieran Farron, rose for an aerial challenge with Jay Donnelly, who had replaced McMenamin. The Bannsiders defender fell very badly to sustain what looked like a serious leg injury. This incident cast a shadow over the rest of the game and everyone at Glentoran FC wishes Adam all the v=best for a swift and full recovery,
This victory, and Crusaders’ injury team equaliser at Solitude pretty much guarantees Glentoran third place for a third consecutive year as although Cliftonville are three points behind with one game to play, the Glens’ goal difference is 33 better than that of the Reds. Though three points next week v Crusaders and a Cliftonville win at Linfield would leave us in second place on goal difference. All to play for.
Full Time: Glentoran 3-0 Coleraine
Photographs by PACEMAKER
Glentoran: McCarey, Wightman (Smith 89), Burns, McCullough (c) , Murphy , Plum(Crowe 79), Devlin, Marshall (Purkis 76) (Crowe 76), McGinn McMenamin (R. Donnelly 65), & Junior (J Donnelly 65)
