Carrick Rangers v Glentoran
Saturday 16th December, 3pm.
This Saturday we visit the Belfast Loughshore Hotel Arena for the first time this season and our third meeting with Carrick Rangers.
Our first two meetings this season have been deeply unsatisfactory from a Glentoran perspective. In August we drew 1-1 in the league at the Oval when an early opener from Ross Redman was equalised immediately after half time by former Glens U20 player Lee Chapman. In October Carrick knocked us out of the Bet McLean League Cup with a Mark Edgar free kick separating the teams. On a more positive note we have won our last three games in Carrick, most recently 1-2 in April with goals from Jonathan Smith and Curtis Allen.
Carrick host us on Saturday in eleventh place in the table on a run of ten consecutive defeats against senior opposition. Given our own run of three consecutive defeats and just one win in our last seven league games and our fall from the top six last week, it’s fair to say that anything other than a win on Saturday will be a serious blow.
Gary Haveron: “We’ve not been scoring goals and as a result lost the last two games by the odd goal. But we need to put that right and see Saturday’s match as the opportunity to get a win and start a run of better results. I’m confident that if we can show the same effort and commitment we showed at Seaview and Solitude and turn that into more chances we can get the win we need.
This week has probably come too early for Ross Redman and John McGuigan though both trained well this week. Ross is very nearly ready but to be fair, Kym has done very well in the last couple of matches so he can give Ross a bit of a challenge. John is still working closely with our physio, Jonny and will be match ready in two weeks at the very latest. He may even be ready for Boxing Day but I’ll be guided by Jonny on that.
Nathan Kerr is ready for Saturday which is a boost as he was excellent when he came back at Seaview. You know what you’re getting with Nathan and his standards rarely drop. Corey is back in contention this week while Tiarnan may also be ready as he’s come through some very tough training sessions this week. Though Knowlesy missed training on Thursday with a bug that’s been working on him for a week or so. I’m not sure about his availability yet.
I’d like to congratulate Willie Garrett on coming through his first seventy minutes of first team action in two years. He did very well at Solitude and it’s great to have him available for the first time since I started here.
Finally I’d like to mention some of the U20 lads who played very well to beat Cliftonville 3-0 on Wednesday. Bobo, Tre and Conall all did well and I’d like to highlight Mark Lowe who had another great game in midfield. David Lowry has been singing Mark’s praises and he’s certainly been impressing this season.”
