Linfield v Glentoran
Saturday 9th September, 3pm.
This Saturday we cross the city to face Linfield in our first “Big Two” game of the new season.
Both teams go into the match unbeaten so far this season. We are currently one point behind Linfield who have won their first four matches with nine goals scored and none conceded. Despite the wide disparity in points and league position between the two clubs last season the four games were reasonably tight and competitive affairs with a draw on our last visit to Windsor on Boxing Day and Linfield winning by a single goal in the others. Following a goalless draw in the Big Two Challenge Cup in July we will travel hoping for a positive result to copper fasten our strong opening to the season and maintain our unbeaten start.
Since last season David Healy has allowed a number of players to leave Linfield, including Sammy Clingan (Glenavon), Sean Ward (Crusaders), Josh Carson (Coleraine), Ross Glendinning (Ballymena) and Ross Gaynor (released) and brought in Robert Garrett (Portadown), Andrew Mitchell (Crusaders), Josh Robinson (York City) and Jordan Stewart (Swindon Town). Paul Smyth left at the transfer deadline for QPR and has been replaced by two strikers – Louis Rooney (unattached) and Brandon Adams on loan from QPR.
Manager Gary Haveron said after training on Thursday night:” I’m pleased to have a full squad available as John McGuigan and Ross Redman both trained well this week and are available for selection on Saturday. Both players started well and will be big for us this season so it’s great to have them available. Stevie Gordon is also fully recovered from his pre-season injury and has done well for the Under 20s so he’s also available to me now.
I’m happy so far with the start we’ve made to the season. I know we’ll be going into this “Big Two” match as underdogs and I know Linfield are a good team. But there’s a lot of confidence about the squad right now so I’ve told the boys we need to approach the game with no fear and that we have to go out to play our own game the way we’ve been set up to do in the season so far. We’ve got a few fearless lads in the squad so there’s no point in us adapting our game to the opposition.
I know how much these matches against Linfield mean to the supporters. So do the players. So we’re all confident that if we go there, work hard and play with confidence then we can get a good result.”