Saturday 10th December
Kick Off 3.00 pm
On Saturday we look to bounce back from the week’s two disappointing defeats when Glenavon are visitors to the Bet McLean Oval in our seventeenth game in the 2022-23 Danske Bank Premiership.
Glenavon fans will also be looking for an improvement in recent performances. After the high of inflicting a first defeat of the season on Glentoran with their 2-1 win at Mourneview Park last month, ninth placed Glenavon have struggled to sustain those levels: picking up only one point from four games and failing to score in their last three, including a shock 1-0 loss to struggling Dungannon at Stangmore Park. However their attacking qualities cannot be ignored as they have scored 31 league goals, just one fewer than ourselves, although we have a significantly better defensive record than Saturday's opponents.
Manager Gary Hamilton – an interested spectator at our Bet McLean Cup defeat on Tuesday evening - may have to do without the services of experienced defender Mark Haughey, with the former Linfield man having been forced to leave the pitch just before half time in last Friday’s 1-0 home defeat to Larne. Long serving fellow defender Andrew Doyle missed out on that game due to injury, as did midfielders Robbie Garrett and Jamie Doran through illness. Hamilton may decide to recall Conor Kerr at Right Back if forced to reshuffle his defensive pack and former NI international Michael O’Connor will be hoping for a recall to the starting line-up after having to bide his time on the substitutes bench since returning from an injury picked up at the end of September.
Glentoran won both encounters between the sides at the Oval last season 2-0; firstly in a league game the week before Christmas where first half goals from Conor McMenamin and Rory Donnelly were enough to claim the three points and then in the semi-final of the Europa League playoffs second half goals from McMenamin and Jay Donnelly secured passage to the Final to face Larne in May of this year.
Former Glens player Rory Brown is a regular starter for Glenavon, as are defenders Calum Birney and Sean Ward who have 596 Glentoran appearances between them.
Tickets are still available for this game at www.glentoran.com/tickets
