Saturday 7 March 2020, Kick Off 3.00 pm
On Saturday afternoon we welcome fifth placed Cliftonville to the Oval for our third Danske Bank Premiership meeting of the season.
Our two previous League meetings have yielded one win each. In November at Solitude we ran out 2-0 winners on a day when both Cameron Stewart and Cricky Gallagher scored their first goals for the club. In October we lost 1-0 at home in highly controversial circumstances in an even game that swung on a ridiculous sending off for Darren Murray and a world class injury time save from Reds’ keeper Richard Brush.
The Reds are two points behind us in the table, following a scoreless North Belfast Derby at Seaview on Tuesday night. They are in a poor run of form at the minute after three consecutive league draws and just one win in their last seven league games. An interesting aspect of this game will be the first meeting of our January signing Ruaridhri Donnelly with the club he served with such distinction for two separate spells. Ruaridhri certainly prepared well for it with his excellent performance against Crusaders last week and his two assists for Navid Nasseri at Mourneview in our last league match. Hopefully Ruaridhri will make an equally telling contribution on Saturday as we look to improve our five-goal lead in goal difference over the Reds.
Mick McDermott: “We thoroughly deserved our win over Crusaders last week in the cup. It was overshadowed in the media by some events at the end of the match, but what we saw was an excellent Glentoran performance against a team we’ve struggled badly against in the past few years. Apart from ten minutes after the Crues goal – which came against the run of play – I felt we were the stronger team throughout and controlled major patches of the game. The boys in all areas of the pitch showed a resilience and a strength of character that’s been called on throughout the past few months and they’ve consistently delivered on it.
I thought Ruaridhri was superb, Navid was superb and everyone else did their job well. We knew we would be against the wind in the first half so they would be picking up second balls a lot in midfield as it’s always easier running on if they meet our goalkeeper’s kicks. That was one of the reasons why we had Joe Crowe and Chris Gallagher sitting in front of the back four. Then you could see how many balls Ruaridhri won in the first half playing in behind Robbie, with Navid brilliant one-on-one.
We’re looking to build on that performance on Saturday. The Reds are a talented team but so are we. Our priority is to take every opportunity to stay in the top group of teams and gain ground on them as the league reaches its climax. There are 24 points left to play for and other teams will inevitably drop points as they’ve all to play us and each other at least once. So, we’ll just take care of ourselves and our own performances. Apart from the long-term guys we’ve everyone available including the four lads who were ineligible for the cup game.”
Prior to Saturday’s game our players will wear yellow training tops during the month of March, to highlight The Marie Curie Daffodil Month. Marie Curie is a registered charity that provides care and support to people with terminal illnesses and their families
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.
Saturday’s Match Sponsor is One Stop Mortgage Shop
One Stop Mortgage Shop based in Bloomfield Shopping Centre (Bangor) and Wellington Place (Belfast) is one of Northern Ireland's leading mortgage brokerage firms. The Directors are all local businessmen who have followed Glentoran for many years. One Stop Mortgage Shop have access to all major mortgage lenders across Northern Ireland as well as arranging mortgage related insurances. The advisors will search and recommend mortgages from across the market and guide all clients from application to completion. This will include first time buyers, home movers, remortgages, co-ownership and buy to lets. Evening and weekend appointments available.
Telephone 91465265 for Bangor and 90312222 for Belfast....your search stops here. LJAT.
