Saturday 16th March
Kick Off 3.00pm
On Saturday we travel to Stangmore Park for our penultimate Sports Direct Premiership match before the split.
Swifts’ recent form may have been inconsistent but a significant upswing since the January transfer window has moved them well clear of the relegation play off as they now sit a healthy twelve points clear of 11th placed Ballymena. Although comfortably beaten 4-0 at Glenavon last week, in recent matches they have had some excellent results, beating Linfield and Cliftonville and drawing with Crusaders.
We have faced the Swifts twice this season – a turgid goalless game at the Bet McLean Oval in September while when we visited Stangmore at Christmas it took second half goals from Marcus Kane and Junior to overturn an early penalty by Gallagher. Our one visit last season was won by a single Jay Donnelly goal in September 2022.
Rodney McAree had a relatively quiet transfer window with only former Glens striker Andrew Mitchell returning to the club and our young keeper Alex Henderson joining on loan. Out went skipper Ethan McGee to Linfield while striker Ethan Devine returned to the Blues after a loan spell. Ex-Glens centre back Caolan Marron – sent off in our last meeting - hasn’t played since late January and our former midfielder Gael Bigirimana is suspended following a red card at Mourneview last week. But Mitchell and another ex-Glen James Knowles are both likely to figure. Also in good form are ex-Larne and Cliftonville Thomas Maguire and striker Ben Gallagher who caused us plenty of problems in our last meeting.
First Team Coach the experienced John Gregg will be in charge for tomorrow’s game: “Obviously its been a challenging week for the players with last week’s performance followed by all the changes that took place, but we’ve had some very good training sessions over the past few days and they’ve come out of it charged up and in great spirits for this game.
We’ll be without David Fisher who starts a 3-game suspension after his red card v Loughgall last week. A couple of the lads who’ve been injured are nearing their return but with some very big matches ahead we need to be sure when they’re brought in. But they’re raring to go”.
This game is pay at the gate.
