Saturday 28th September 2019, Kick Off 3.00 pm
On Saturday we face one of the big acid tests of our season, with our first visit to Seaview, the venue where we have our worst win performance over the past few years.
Crusaders currently lead the table, three points ahead of Coleraine and Cliftonville and four ahead of us, but they lost their first game of the season last week at Coleraine Showgrounds.
Our last competitive victory over Crusaders was in the Irish Cup semi-final in April 2015, a match from which only Marcus Kane, Stevie Gordon, Elliott Morris and Willie Garrett are likely to make the squad with Curtis Allen and Calum Birney still recovering from injury. We’ve had a few draws since then, but everyone involved will be wanting to end that winless run this week.
Experienced football reporter Alex Mills spoke to www.glentoran.com about the Crues’ form so far:“ It could be argued that it isn’t the ideal time to make a trip across town to Seaview. The Crues slipped to their first defeat of the League campaign last weekend, beaten 4-2 by an impressive Coleraine side at the Showgrounds. It could be the proverbial wounded animal scenario . . . they’ll be determined to get back to a winning formula.
Over the summer, Stephen Baxter made high-profile summer signings of Chris Hegarty and Jarlath O’Rourke from Dungannon Swifts to strengthen his squad defensively. He then returned to Stangmore Park recently to snap up the impressive Paul McElroy and then also added the ultra-talented Jamie McGonigle to boost his fire power at the other end of the pitch. The Shore Road team have a potent mixture of power and skill.
Yes, they may have suffered their first defeat , but the consensus of opinion is, the team that finishes above Stephen Baxter’s side at the end of the campaign, could well be the team that lifts the League title.”
Mick McDermott: “Our first half performance against Warrenpoint was excellent. We created nine or ten clear chances and multiple corners. That was great from the players, but I was disappointed we didn’t hit the target more often. The second half was different. Warrenpoint are a well organised team and when they started to get into the game it was obvious they were going to get a half chance, which they did, and they scored it. It was a good game to learn from. To emphasise to the players that if you don’t take your chances when you’re dominating then this happens, and you finish up chasing the game. But a winner at the death is always a big thing. Cameron Stewart go an injury in pre-season and hasn’t had much game time, but he’s been an excellent pro. He did superbly to get the flick on and Paddy did very well to score it. Cricky Gallagher gave us a bit more energy and did really well when he came on while Hrvoje was excellent from the first to the ninety fifth minute.
Paul and I are fully aware of the club’s poor record at Seaview for most of this decade. As its been eight years since we won there quite a few of our younger supporters won’t have seen us win there. Against that background we’re going there under no pressure. Crusaders will be clear favourites on the day as they are for the league, along with Linfield. But we’re going there to show people what Glentoran is about. We’ll have a lot more fans with us and I know they’ll make a big noise from the start. We’re definitely not going there to make up the numbers. We’ll never do that. I’ve said before that in every match I want to see us put the opposition under pressure and do as much damage as we can. The players have been told clearly what’s expected of them on Saturday, so we’ll go there with the pressure all on the opposition and give our fans something to get behind. We’re ready for it.
On the player front, both Tom Byrne and Jonny Frazer have been training very well so they’re fully recovered, fit and ready to go after training very well this week. We could have included them last week, but I want our players to be fully recovered when they play. That way we’ll have them all season rather than them breaking down because we’ve rushed them. Gavin Peers isn’t quite as clear cut, so we’ll have a late fitness test. We’re still missing Curtis and Calum. Curtis was a bad miss for us last week against Warrenpoint in that first half. I’m sure he’d have scored a few with the chances we created. He shouldn’t be too long and I’m looking forward to having his quality available.”
