Glentoran v Dungannon Swifts
Tuesday 3rd April, 7.45pm.
On Easter Tuesday we start the final run of league matches exactly where we didn’t want to, in the bottom half of the split, as we play Dungannon Swifts for the fourth and final time this season.
Swifts are currently one place and ten points behind us though since we last met i9n December they have won the Bet McLean League Cup. Congratulations to Swifts on collecting this major piece of silverware for the first time.
In our previous three meetings this season we have won twice – a 2-0 home win in the first week of the season through goals from Curtis Allen and John McGuigan, followed by a similar result at Stangmore Park in October through goals from Curtis and Calum Birney. Our most recent meeting was an insipid scoreless draw at the New Year fixture in County Tyrone.
Swifts form since their League Cup win has been poor but added well in the January window by signing Daniel Hughes from Cliftonville, Mark Patton from Glenavon and ex-Ballinamallard player Johnny Lafferty. Ten days ago they had a good win over Glenavon and in February drew with Linfield so our players will need to put their weak performance v Ballymena behind them and go at Dungannon from the start to ensure we don’t have our lead eroded in the last European playoff position.
Willie Garrett, Stevie Gordon and John McGuigan will both this game through one match suspensions – Garrett for his late sending off in our last game v Ballymena United and Gordon and McGuigan for accumulating five yellow cards so far this season. Peter McMahon is unavailable for work reasons.
Ronnie McFall said on Monday evening: “We’re a bit short in midfield tomorrow night but James Knowles trained this week so we’ll give him every chance to prove he’s fully recovered and ready to play. With McMahon unavailable too it might give some of the players who’ve been on the fringes recently a chance to come in and make an impression. The Ballymena result was a complete disappointment after we’d hauled ourselves back into such a strong position for the top half. There’s no excuse for not stepping up that night so it’s up to us to get as much momentum built up as possible to first qualify and then prepare for the European play-off. We also need to give the supporters something positive to watch over the last few weeks of the season.”
The Board of Directors at Glentoran Football Club would again request that all supporters travelling to the Oval by private car consider the local residents when deciding where and how to park.
