Saturday 17th February
Kick Off 3.00pm
On Saturday we welcome Newry City to the Bet McLean Oval for game 28 of this season’s Sports Direct Premiership.
Newry City will be seeking to end a run of 17 games without a Premiership win - stretching back to October 7th when they won 2-0 at fellow strugglers Ballymena United - as they visit the Oval for the second time this season.
Back in December, a Shay McCartan goal after half an hour was enough to secure a 1-0 win for Glentoran, despite having to play nearly an hour with 10 men after Aidan Wilson was given a straight red card. Indeed, the Mourne side have not recorded a victory at the Oval since December 2009.
With the experienced Barry Gray now at the helm, Newry have made some changes to the squad in the January window as they seek to gain enough points to avoid automatic relegation to the Championship. Defender Steven Ball and former Glentoran midfielder Fra McCaffrey have arrived from Gray’s former side Warrenpoint and striker Brandon Doyle (on loan from Crusaders) and goalkeeper Conor Mitchell (Dungannon) have also previously enjoyed spells with the ‘Point. Former Glentoran winger Jamie McDonagh has also arrived on loan from Cliftonville for the rest of the campaign after ending a similar arrangement with Glenavon.
Warren Feeney: “I was as disappointed as the supporters were with the second half performance and final score against Carrick last week. Those are important points as we go for a European place and build momentum for the rest of the season. I talk a lot about mentality and mindset but I can only put those 2 second half performances down to that. Players are doing well to get us into a lead – like David and Bobby last week – but then we miss chances to finish it off, the opposition score and we’re on the back foot.
For Newry it’s also going to be a tough one, as all games are at this stage of the season. Newry are bottom of the table so can’t afford to lose many more points. That means they’ll be fighting hard for everything they can get. They did well to draw at Loughgall on Tuesday night and worked hard last weekend to draw their TV match with Ballymena. So we can’t afford to be anything other than on our game on Saturday. They have an experienced manager in now in Barry who knows this division well so we know our focus needs to be strong to get the three points.
On the injury front we’ve a few players still out hurt and its likely we’ll be without them for another 2 or 3 weeks. But on a more positive note James Singleton has settled back into training for a couple of weeks and can come into contention this week. That’s a boost as he was a very important player for us before his injury. Harry Murphy got more minutes for the Seconds on Monday night, along with Aaron Wightman and Josh Kelly. So for the injuries I feel we still have a strong squad available to us.
Tickets for this game can be purchased HERE.
IMPORTANT SUPPORTER NOTICES
- The Board of Directors remind supporters that under no circumstance is anyone permitted to bring flares, fireworks or any other sort of pyrotechnic equipment into the Bet McLean Oval at any time. These are highly dangerous to other supporters and potentially to players. Any breach of this rule will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Persons breaking this rule will receive a lifetime ban from the Bet McLean Oval and will be reported to the police.
- We strongly request that supporters respect the rights of the local residents by parking well away from housefronts in the immediate locality. There is plenty of available parking at the Holywood Arches Heath Centre.
Photography by JOHNNY CALDWELL
