With everyone away from the Oval for an undetermined period, we have decided to bring Glentoran supporters some of the most compelling content from the multi award winning Glentoran Gazette. We hope you will enjoy the stories and player interviews we bring and that it will encourage you to buy a Gazette at our home matches when football returns. Many thanks to the Glentoran Supporters Committee (1923) for use of this material. The "Team Talks" series will consist of interviews with current squad members with John Grayden this season.
Andrew Mitchell
interview with John Grayden
Boyhood Glenavon fan Andrew Mitchell doesn’t know what sort of reception he will get from the Lurgan club’s supporters if he turns out for Glentoran tonight.
But the Glens new centre forward insists it’s not something he can think about too much.
“I was at Glenavon for the last 30 months in my second spell at the club and I went out every game to give my best for the club.
“However, things change in football as we all know. Now my job is to give my best for the Glens. I have lots of friends and family members who are Glenavon fans but that has to go out the window if I’m on the pitch,” Andrew said.
The Waringstown schoolteacher first played for the Lurgan Blues as a teenager. “I was playing for Lisburn Youth on a Saturday morning and Glenavon under 18s in the afternoon from the age of 15.
“I was loaned out to Ards for a year as a teenager in 2013 but when I came back to Mourneview it was it was made plain to me that I was down the pecking order so I felt a move to would be more beneficial.
I went to Dungannon Swifts and was happy there during my three years at Stangmore Park. After I had settled in, I scored a lot of goals in my second and third years there before returning to Mourneview in 2017,” the Northern Ireland under 19 international added.
Andrew, who signed for the Glens on January 16th, only became aware of Mick McDermott and Paul Millar’s interest in him a few days before the move was finalised.
“Paul played a big part in my move to the Oval,” Andrew said. “He has always been a big influence on me and is someone I have a lot of respect for.
“There’s no question that he has been instrumental in my football career. He played as a forward at the highest level in the game and was always passing on tips to me.
“I came up to the Oval and met Mick who outlined his vision of the club’s future to me and it didn’t take me long to make up my mind to move. It felt as if was the right time for me to take on a new challenge and it is certainly the right time to be at Glentoran with the way things have moved in the last year,” Andrew added.
Now the man who teaches P6 pupils at Waringstown Primary school is settling into life in the Oval dressing room after penning a part-time deal for the next 30 months. “It’s been easy as the boys I didn’t know before have been very welcoming.
“It also helped that I knew some of the other players before I came. Obviously, I had played with Caolan Marron at Glenavon but I’d also played with Cameron Stewart at Glenavon when he was on loan from Linfield.
“What some people might not know is that I’d played with Stevie Gordon and Robbie McDaid at Glenavon when we were teenagers. Now I’m looking forward to linking up with Robbie again,” Andrew said.
While he has only been at Glentoran for less than a fortnight he has been impressed at the professional manner in which everything seems to be run.
“The training sessions from all the coaches are top rate and I feel as if I am being treated like a full time player. It may have been a little surprising getting my debut at Institute ten days ago but the way I look at it, I have to take every opportunity that comes my way. Hopefully I’ll do enough to keep my place in or around the team,” Andrew added.
“My ambition now is to really challenge for trophies. I turned 26 at the weekend and when I retire from football I want to look back and say I got a league medal or an Irish Cup medal. Those are the ones you want and not everybody in the game is in a position to win them.
“I have a Mid-Ulster Cup medal from my time at Glenavon, but I want to win the major trophies in the local game. I feel with the way things have moved at Glentoran since the season started that we can challenge for those competitions in the near future.”
Life at Glentoran has meant his training regime has moved up a notch. Instead of working out on Tuesdays and Thursdays he has to contend with a Monday session as well.
However, even that has worked out well both domestically and in terms of his full-time job.
Andrew’s wife Carly – they married last summer and are living just outside Waringstown – plays senior league hockey for Lurgan Ladies and trains on Monday nights.
“With the full squad training sessions at Glentoran brought forward to 4.30pm, I leave for Belfast as soon as I finish school and am back home by early evening,” said Andrew.
It’s also possible that Carly will get to see him play for the Glens soon. “She is obviously into sport and knows a bit about football; one of her uncles is chairman of Premier Intermediate League side Dollingstown.
“Anytime she had a free Saturday in the past she came to see me play so I would expect that to continue in the future,” Andrew added.
