Saturday 11th February 2023
Kick Off 3.00pm
On Saturday we travel north to meet Coleraine for the first time since our goalless draw there exactly three months ago.
Saturday’s Irish Cup defeat on penalties against Cliftonville brought an end to Coleraine’s fourteen game unbeaten run in all competitions, but Oran Kearney’s side are still unbeaten in 12 in the Danske Bank Premiership, having last lost 2-1 to Crusaders at Ballycastle Road on 8th November, three days before our most recent visit to the Showgrounds. With eight wins and four draws picked up in that time - conceding just four goals along the way - the Bannsiders have consolidated themselves in fourth place, six points behind leaders Cliftonville.
The first game of that unbeaten run was the last game in which the two sides met at Ballycastle Road; a feisty scoreless draw in front of the tv cameras. In last season’s meetings, Glentoran emerged as 2-0 winners in the first game thanks to a goal each from the Donnelly brothers just before Christmas 2021, before Coleraine defeated us 3-2 in a post-split fixture in April 2022.
Kearney will be boosted by the return of talismanic midfielder Jamie Glackin after a suspension, but has fitness doubts around midfielder Stephen Lowry and Right Back Connor McDermott, while winger Conor McKendry is likely to be ruled out for a few more weeks. In a quiet transfer window, Kearney added to his attacking options with the arrival of Andrew Scott from Larne and Eamon Fyfe from Championship Dundela. In the opposite direction, defender Aaron Canning and striker Cathair Friel moved to Portadown and long serving striker James McLaughlin on loan to Carrick Rangers.
Rodney McAree: “I thought we handled our cup game at Portadown very professionally. The Ports started well but I felt it was only a matter of time we got the first goal. When it came through Jay that made whoever got the next very important for how the match would progress. We got it through a great strike by Niall and had the match won soon after with the third. We let it drop a bit after the third but it was a good cup win to take us through so I have to be happy with that. It was great to see Jay get another couple and we had a great, vocal crowd supporting us. I was particularly impressed with the roar that went up when Conor came on in the second half. That will have meant a lot to him.
Coleraine are on a long unbeaten league run and are in a rich vein of form right now, so we need to go there with the sort of confidence and belief we’ve shown over the past few weeks. Obviously, we have respect for them but there’s a serious amount of quality in our squad so they’ll be concerned about our visit.
On the player front, Conor has had no negative reaction to his appearance last week and he’s delighted to be back playing football. I actually felt we were a bit sloppy towards the end at Portadown, otherwise he may have had a few chances. We plan to manage Conor’s return properly so we’ll do whatever we think is right for his full recovery.”
Rhys is back in training so could come back into contention. I was very pleased with Aaron Wightman’s performance at right back last week. He did very well in his first competitive start there. Singo is also getting over his injury pretty well. He’s had a couple of sub appearances and participated in a full week’s training this week, But James was out for eight and a half weeks so it takes a bit of time to get totally sharp after that length of break.
The other good news is about Paddy. His heel is beginning to heal and he’ll soon be back in contention. Paddy is a big player for us on and off the pitch and has been for the past few seasons. We need him as an option for us so again I’m pleased to see how well he’s progressing.”
