Monday 18th February 2019, Kick Off 7.45pm
On Monday night we entertain fourth placed Glenavon in front of the Sky cameras.
We have played Glenavon twice so far this season, gaining only one point out of six though really it should have been more. In the first game, at Mourneview in September, we took a deserved second half 1-0 lead through Robbie McDaid only to give away an unnecessary penalty to finish the match at 1-1. The game at the Oval in October will be remembered for a long time for the decisions of referee Keith Kennedy rather than for the football played. In that game we led 1-0, again from McDaid (his fifth goal in five games against his old club) before a series of sendings off, a wrongly disallowed goal and a wrongly allowed one sent the Glens support shaking their heads in bewilderment the whole way home.
We go into this match on a slightly better run of form than our opponents, having taken ten points from our last five Danske Bank Premiership matches compared to Glenavon’s four, both clubs having made a disappointingly early exit from the Irish Cup. Glenavon may be suffering from the loss of midfielders Mark Sykes to Oxford United and on loan Ben Doherty to Coleraine, but they have brought in Robert Garrett from Linfield and Eoin Wearen (ex-Limerick) to replace them. They have also brought in Cameron Stewart on loan from Linfield and recalled Robbie Norton from a loan spell at Warrenpoint Town.”
Gary Smyth: “Last week at Warrenpont I was delighted with both the performance and the result. We found out earlier in the season that it’s never easy playing there, and they were meeting us on the back of a great run of results. But we went there with the right attitude, got an early goal and kicked on from there. In a lot of matches this season we’ve started very well but lost out by not putting away our early chances or not capitalising on an early lead so at Warrenpoint it was nice to score goals and keep a clean sheet. I thought that every time we went forward we looked as though we could score. When we got the third goal I think they lost their discipline a wee bit which helped us as well. That’s been a failing of ours this season so last week was very encouraging on a number of levels and the lads deserve so much credit. I was really pleased for Lukasz and Darren to get a couple of goals each. That will do their confidence the world of good.
Today we’re playing Glenavon for the third time this season. We’ve matched them in both games so far and should have come away with a lot more than we did. At Mourneview in September I felt we should have won the game. We’d got ourselves into a very strong position and were on top until we gave away a needless penalty. I think we’ve all said plenty about the controversies in the second match, at the Oval. That match was ruined by the sendings off but again we did very well, had a fair late goal – that could have won us the match – wrongly disallowed then Glenavon scored a late winner that we’ve all seen footage of that proves it shouldn’t have been allowed.
We’ll be without Ross Redman and Joe Crowe today, and probably for the rest of the season. Joe fractured his metatarsal during training last Thursday. It’s terrible bad luck for him. Joe knows he was silly with his sending off against Linfield but he’d been playing very well up to that point. He is a very good lad and I’ve no doubt he’ll come back from this better than ever. Ross needs a clean-up operation on his ankle. He had a MRI scan which revealed the damage. The consultant says he now needs an operation to tidy the ankle up.
Curtis Allen had a head injury after a clash of heads at training on Tuesday night but he should be available tomorrow night. I thought he looked sharp when he came on at Warrenpoint. He had what looked like a good goal disallowed while he was perfectly positioned to score if their defender hadn’t scored the own goal for our fifth.
Elliott has completed a few full sessions and has declared himself available for selection, which is a boost for us. Gavin Peers missed Warrenpoint with a chest infection but he played 45 minutes for the U20s on Saturday so he is also available. Peter McMahon played and scored in that U20s match so it was good to get him some game time and get him on the scoresheet too. Though Paul O’Neill was sent off in that match so he won’t be available on Monday night. From what I’m told it was a tussle for the ball with a Newry defender and Paul was unlucky to get his red card.”
Our match sponsor on Monday evening is Nicdar Tiles, baased at 14 Hqanwood Business Park, Dundonald - Mediterranean tiles at affordable prices. We thank them for their support and encourage Glentoran supporters to check them out at
https://www.facebook.com/Nicdar-Tiles-2262852700600707/
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.
