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Match Preview - Glentoran v Ards

Thu, 07/03/2019 - 23:58

Glentoran v Ards

Saturday 9 March 2019. Kick off 3.00pm

On Saturday we welcome Ards to the Oval, for what is our first Saturday home game in six weeks.

Ards moved off the bottom of the table for the first time since early season with their last league game, a 3-1 win over fellow strugglers Newry City at Bangor. That was Warren Feeney’s first match since being appointed manager for the rest of the season, replacing the sacked Colin Nixon. So there will be no room for complacency or sloppiness from Glentoran players if we are to overtake Institute in seventh place, Ards are currently seventeen places behind us in the Danske Bank Premiership.

Our previous two meetings this season ended in a 2-0 win at Bangor on the second Saturday of the season, through goals from John McGuigan and Curtis Allen, and a comfortable 4-0 home win in October with Allen (twice), Marcus Kane and Robbie McDaid all on the scoresheet,

Gary Smyth:  “We’ve had eleven days without a match so the boys are raring to go for this one.  Our last match at Warrenpoint saw a decent performance but more importantly a good win after two defeats.  We got the match won pretty early with Robbie’s opener, Darren’s penalty then a really well worked goal between the two of them with a great finish from Darren.  Overall it was a good, comfortable win that moved us a place up the table so we should be happy enough with that as seventh spot remains our immediate goal at the moment.

 In the past few weeks we’ve added a few young players to the senior squad. While James McCarthy and Paul O’Neill have been around the squad for most of the season we were able to give Jack Henderson and Sean Gallagher their debuts against Warrenpoint with Mal Smith getting his second run out. Also or young keeper Paul McLaughlin was on the bench for the first time recently. We can’t expect too much too soon from all of them but they’ve all come through the Academy ranks and it’s great to see them making the next step up. As well as these lads we’re bringing young Jamie Glover into the eighteen for the first time on Saturday. Jamie is a very quick left sided player who’s been doing very well for the U20s. He’s 18 and a local lad from the Woodstock Road and he played for the Northern Ireland U18s in the win over Scotland this week. So it’s good to see him getting a chance.

We’ve had a couple of good wins against Ards so far this season but with Warren Feeney in charge now we’ll need to be prepared to face something different from the previous matches. They had a good win against Newry a couple of weeks ago to lift them off the bottom and our players don’t need to be told how dangerous any team can be when they’re fighting for their survival from relegation. They’ll be well up for this one from the start so we’ll need to be even moreso.

We had fantastic training sessions this week. Real high tempo work and there’s a real buzz about the place. If we can bring this attitude and approach to Saturday I’d be very excited about it. The three forwards are on fire, as is Paul O’Neill whose suspension is over so he’ll also be back in the squad for Saturday. Curtis is in great twist and is working very well in the three with Robbie and Darren. He’s been a bit unlucky in front of goal lately but you can’t keep him down and he’s really up for this one on Saturday.

For Saturday we have Cricky Gallagher back after a one match suspension. He was also carrying a knock but he came through training well on Thursday night so he’ll be fine. Elliott has also completed a few good sessions so he’ll be in the squad as well. John Herron has a one match suspension while Calum Birney has finished his suspension but might be out for 2 or 3 weeks with a groin injury. Joe Crowe had his operation on Thursday and Ross Redman will have his soon so good luck to both of them for a quick and full recovery”.

Our match sponsor on Saturday is Box-It Ireland

Box-it Ireland Limited have over 25 years experience in manufacturing of bespoke corrugated boxes. Based in Belfast & Newry, they cover all of Ireland, supplying boxes into multiple sectors, including Food, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical, Medical and Online Retailers. For a free quotation, as well as additional information about any of their packing material supply services, contact the company using the details below.

Address  Unit 11   40, Montgomery Road    Belfast   BT6 9HL

Email  http://brian@box-it.uk.com

Phone  028 9002 5543

Opening Times   Monday - Thursday: 7am - 5pm

                           Friday: 7am - 1pm

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. Local parking is freely available at the Arches Health Centre.