Tuesday 13th November 2018, Kick Off 7.45
Tomorrow night we welcome Crusaders for the quarter final of the BetMcLean League Cup.
We clearly need to improve our record against Crusaders but maybe we can take a positive sign from the fact that the last time we beat them was in the semi final of the 2015 Irish Cup when Curtis Allen’s goal was enough to get us through at Mourneview Park.
Manager Ronnie McFall: “Saturday’s loss to Ballymena was a major disappointment. We know how they set up and for the first half we adjusted our system a bit to counter it and to offset the effects of both our usual left sided players being unable to start. I didn’t think it worked so we changed it in the second half. We created a few decent chances but apart from John Herron having a header cleared off the line and pulling a great save out of Ross Glendenning we never really looked like equalising. We’re not scoring enough goals and that needs to improve if we’re to start getting the results we need. Also despite the amount of work we’ve put in on it we’re still losing the same goal over and over with the ball not being cleared. The defenders know this isn’t acceptable and we’ve been through it again with them.
Our goals for this season haven’t changed. We are looking for an improvement in our League position and to do as well as possible in the Irish Cup and League Cup. I’m confident we can do that, starting against Crusaders. This is a rebuilding programme that will take a while. It will mean improving the players we have, the young players developing and maturing at a decent pace, and strengthening the squad in every transfer window. I’m working on targets for January now as I want to move quickly when we have the opportunity.
For tuesday's match against Crusaders we’ll be sending out the strongest possible team as we very much want to win the Bet McLean League Cup. Glentoran’s record against Crusaders has been a very poor one over the past few years but this is a cup match and I want all the players to dig into the club’s great cup tradition and get us through to the semi finals. We did that a fortnight ago against a strong Coleraine team so I expect the same in this round.
We will have Ross Redman back from suspension so that’ll be a boost as we really missed his deliveries from the left against Ballymena. Stevie Gordon is also available again but we have John Herron out for the next 3 matches because of a suspension I still find impossible to believe.
In closing I want to say that throughout the past month when results have been poor, the supporters have stayed firmly behind us. That’s what these players and the management team need. Gary, Paul and I all know from our time as players here how important a strong Glentoran support can be to players so please keep that going while we do what we need to do to improve results”.
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.
