Saturday 21st September 2019, Kick Off 3.00 pm
On Saturday we look to get back to winning ways after our late defeat last Saturday, by welcoming Warrenpoint Town to the Oval.
Point have had a torrid start to the season, losing all of their six matches so far, to trail Institute by a point and Glenavon by three points at the foot of the table.
Warrenpoint Secretary Jack Gilsenan told www.glentoran.com: “Another season and another trip to the Oval. Unfortunately for us this season, there hasn’t been much positivity on the pitch with 6 straight defeats. Confidence is low however it was the same as last season and we went on to have our best season in the top flight.
With the league a lot more difficult this season, with the introduction of the newly promoted Larne with finances we can only dream of, makes our chances in the top flight even more difficult.
We have a young manager, with plenty of knowledge of the game and as always we will give Stevey and the whole team our full backing. We wish Glentoran all the best for the rest of the season and look forward to welcoming you all back to Milltown later in the season”.
Last season we had two wins and two draws against Warrenpoint. A year ago, we travelled to Milltown on what was the last in a nine-game unbeaten run. But despite our good form at the time, we turned in a dismal performance as despite an early opener from John Herron and playing the last 36 minutes against ten men, we created very few chances then conceded an 80th minute Ciaran O’Connor equaliser for a 1-1 finish. A February visit was a lot more convincing as by half time ‘Point had two red cards (O’Connor and our former player Fra McCafffrey) and we were 4-0 ahead with two each from Lukasz Gwiazda and Darren Murray. An own goal late in the game completed the 5-0 finish. Two weeks later we had a 3-1 home win with goals from Robbie McDaid and Murray (2) in another match where our opponents were reduced to ten men after Lee Duffy picked up two bookings. Finally, in April we twice came from behind through goals from John Herron and Darren Murray (his fourth goal in three meetings with his former club) for a 2-2 finish.
Mick McDermott: “Against Warrenpoint on Saturday, we’ll look to build on our recent form and to build on the strengths we demonstrated against Linfield. I know Warrenpoint have had a disappointing start to the season, but we treat each opponent with the same respect, and we prepare with the same detail, irrespective of who we are playing. Warrenpoint have a good manager and a good squad of players so our players will be fully aware of how hard they will need to work from the start in this game. Our men have very clearly shown their commitment to this project and that must be maintained week in / week out, starting today. We are at Home and as we have always said, we expect to make the Oval a tough place to visit, to make opponents suffer when they play here. I feel we’ve generally done that so far and will be looking for that to continue today. I’ve seen clearly in the past month that we have the best fans in the League and we also need to consistently show our commitment to them. Nothing to do with that. It is the players, the fans and the community. We have a brilliant community right now and we will keep building on that.
On the player front, Tom Byrne was back in training this week, following the strain he picked up in the first game against Ballyclare. I’ve felt very sorry for Tom that he hasn’t really got going yet but he’s a great, very talented and exciting player who our fans will love when he gets a run of games to show what he can do. As we know Gavin Peers suffered a slight calf strain against Linfield last week, but he’s been training and is already back to running. Today might be too early for him but if that’s the case it won’t be long until he’s back.
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.
