Saturday 5th January 2019, Kick Off 3pm
We go to face Crusaders on Saturday to open what we hope will be a successful Irish Cup campaign and although it will be a challenge facing Crusaders in their current good form how better to try to put the New Year’s Day horror show behind us.
To get anything from this match we’ll need to perform a lot more like we did against Crusaders in our last two meetings at the Oval than we did in our 3-0 trouncing at Seaview in October. Gary Smyth and Paul Leeman – in sole charge of the first team for the first time – will be hoping we repeat the last time we played the Crues in the Irish Cup. That day – the 2015 semi final at Mourneview Park – saw Eddie Patterson’s team beat the then champions elect 1-0 with a Curtis Allen goal.
Gary Smyth said on Thursday night after his first training session in charge: “While I’m delighted to have been given the job, my call from the Chairman this morning came as a bit of a shock. It’s been a very long day but I’m delighted to be given this chance at a club I’ve always supported and that I loved playing for. I know all the players well, obviously, but we’re all in a different scenario know and that’s clearly going to change how I deal with things within the club. We sat down with the team tonight, had a very clear discussion, shared our ideas with them, established how we’re going to approach Saturday then followed that with a great training session put on by Leeper.
We’re all very grateful to Ronnie for everything he did for the club in the past year and a manager with his experience and track record shouldn’t ever have to be let down by a performance like the one the team put in on Tuesday. So I can understand why he decided to go now. People say we’ve had a fair bit of bad luck this season – and we have with cup draws and a number of refereeing decisions – but overall good luck doesn’t just happen. We need to make things happen for ourselves, set up properly, stick to what we’re supposed to be doing and stop making the sort of unforced, basic errors that have cost us so many points this season so far. It’s obvious that there’s something not right here and it’s up to Leeper and I to fix that. That will start with how we approach Saturday at Seaview. All our focus is on this match to give us a boost we need through a performance and result that will lead us to more performances that will get us the wins we need to help us push back up the table. I’ve got my own way of playing and I’ll make sure the supporters see that have a positive impact for us from the start. That’s how we’ll approach Saturday.
It would have been better to go into Saturday with Moko and Robbie available. The unnecessary bookings, red cards and suspensions are something we’ll address right away as we’ve lost too many of our better players this season. A couple of the red cards were unfair but by and large they’ve been avoidable. Passion and commitment needs to be channelled a lot better as we need our good players available. But we know how we’ll set up to compensate for losing the two lads.
Darren Murray is available to us now his registration has gone through. I didn’t know Darren until he came in but Ronnie has spoken very highly of him. He’s been very sharp in training, is a nice lad, has shown a great attitude since coming here and has fitted in well. Leeper and I are delighted to have him because he’s a very good player with a very good scoring rate. I’d ask our supporters to give Darren a fair chance to establish himself here as he has all the attributes necessary to help get us back to the top in time.
Darren Murray
I can also announce that we’ve also brought Lukasz Gwiazda to the club. I signed Lukasz for the Welders at the start of last season and he did very well for me. We signed him as a central midfielder where he was doing well then when we had an injury crisis we moved him upfront and he was also a success there. He’s been having a very good season with nine goals scored so I was very keen to get him in and recommended him to the club. He’s a strong, tall player who’s 24, has an outstanding workrate and is strong right across the midfield as well as upfront. We’ve signed him initially until the end of the season and I’m confident he’ll impress.
For the rest of this window we still want to get in a couple more players who can strengthen the starting line up. If we can get the right quality of player in then we’ll make sure we can do it. If that means moving a few out to accommodate them and provide the money within our wage cap then that’s what we’ll do,
Lukasz Gwiazda
Finally I’d ask the supporters to get well behind the players right from the start on Saturday. Despite our results the Glens support has turned out in fantastic numbers, especially in the bigger games. Leeper and I know as well as anyone what this club means to its supporters and East Belfast so rest assured we’ll be doing everything possible to get us back to where we need to be.”
