Saturday 24th October 2020, Kick Off 3:00pm
Tomorrow, we look to bounce back after last week’s defeat at Solitude with a win against our visitors Glenavon, in our belated return to league action at the Oval, after a delay of over seven months.
Our last four meetings with Glenavon have involved two wins and two draws. On their last visit to East Belfast, in January on this year, we had a comfortable 4-0 win through goals from Paul O’Neill (2), Navid Nasseri and Robbie McDaid. Glenmen will be hoping that McDaid has fully recovered in time for this one, as he has scored no fewer than seven times against his former club in just three seasons. Other ex-Mourneview men in the current squad are Andrew Mitchell, Caolan Marron and Bobby Burns, plus Cameron Stewart, who won’t be available tomorrow following his sending off last week. We have lost just one of our last eight meetings, having scored first in the last seven!
Glenavon have not had a particularly active close season in transfer terms compared to other clubs but have made three high profile signings in former Northern Ireland International midfielder Michael O’Connor, Crusaders midfielder Matthew Snoddy on loan, and Sean Ward. Also with January signings Calum Birney (making his first return to the Oval after 200 appearances for the Glens) and Colin Coates in central defence, plus the experience of Robert Garrett in midfield, Jonny Tuffey in goal and another former Glenman, Danny Purkis in attack, there is plenty of quality in Gary Hamilton’s squad. So, they will be looking to recover from a comprehensive home defeat last week from newly promoted local rivals Portadown.
Mick McDermott: “Last week’s result at Cliftonville was disappointing for us. #. I thought we controlled the first half when although we created little in terms of goal threat, they created nothing at all, and we were very comfortable. In the second half they changed a couple of things, got a bit of momentum from about the hour mark and created a couple of chances, as did we. It was very disappointing to lose such a soft goal so late in the game and to come away with nothing.
For Saturday's match with Glenavon we’re under no illusions about the fact they’ll be up for it. Gary has done a great job there over the past few years and despite losing a few good players, I think their signings in the off season have been good and should strengthen them well. They are always well drilled, and they won’t be coming here to relax. But we want the right result too and that’s where our focus will be. We have a few former Glenavon players in our squad, so they’ll be well up for this one also.
I’m pleased to be able to report that all our players trained well this week and the lads who picked up knocks during close season are available for selection. That’s not to say they will necessarily start because we have options this season that allow us to take recovery at a pace that works for the player.
Hrvoje is also back in full training with the rest of the players, so that’s a very positive stage in his recovery. He’s still a bit away from coming into contention but we all know how valuable he’ll be to the squad once he’s fully recovered and match fit”.
As there will be a limited number of supporters, and no away supporters permitted entry to this match, supporters are reminded that they can access our GlensTV live stream of the match by signing up here. Live match coverage can be purchased for £7 (which includes access to a full replay of the action), while a delayed stream will cost £3. Remember, our stream will commence just after 2.30 with a match preview programme, and our match commentator Aaron Agnew will be accompanied as co-commentator by our legendary, quadruple title winning skippr Paul Leeman.
Reminder to season ticket holders: Group allocated tickets for forthcoming restricted features can be collected on Friday from the superstore between the hours of 11am till 4pm, and on Saturday from 9am till 12 noon.
