Saturday 15th April
3.00 pm Kick Off
On Saturday we welcome third placed Cliftonville to the Bet McLean Oval.
Cliftonville are the only side Glentoran have yet to take a point from this season, having won 1-0 at the Oval in late November and recorded 1-0 and 2-1 wins at Solitude in December and February.
Results since the latter Solitude fixture have been disappointing, however, with a shock Irish Cup Quarter Final exit at home to Dungannon Swifts and only 5 points amassed from the last 5 league fixtures. This run has ended any chance of winning the Title and left the Reds with some work to do to avoid finishing in the European playoff positions.
With only 1 clean sheet in their past 11 games, the defensive resolve that stood Paddy McLaughlin’s side in such good stead earlier in the campaign has receded, but the goals have continued to flow for strikers Ryan Curran and Ronan Hale; with 14 and 17 goals respectively, they account for almost half of the Reds’ total league haul this campaign.
Former Glentoran midfielder Cricky Gallagher is likely to return to the side after missing Tuesday’s home defeat to leaders Larne. If McLaughlin decides to reshuffle his defensive options left back Aaron Traynor and centre backs Jamie Robinson and Colin Coates will hope to come into the side, possibly at the expense of Odhran Casey and Luke Turner.
Rodney McAree: “The lads who came in against Linfield deserved their opportunity. Harry Murphy in particular hasn’t had many opportunities so far since signing but his attitude and his performances for the U20s have been great all season so I was happy to give him his first league start. It takes real guts to make your first start in a Big Two game at Windsor and I thought Harry showed that in abundance on Tuesday night. He also showed a real desire to do well for the team and for his team mates and he has good reason to be proud of how he did.
In the first half we were exceptional up until the final third and it was very harsh for us to go in a goal down. Simply we didn’t ask enough questions of the Linfield defence and that was disappointing given how well the midfield and defence were playing. While we didn’t create a lot of chances over the course of the match I felt there was a chance coming and the goal we got involved great work by Terry and Rory before Bobby got on the end of it to equalise. Then we could have won it at the very end when Terry made a great run to get on the end of Rory’s cross. He was a bit unlucky but the Blues defended it well.
The work rate and desire we showed against Linfield is the bare minimum of what we need and expect against Cliftonville on Saturday. We know Cliftonville are a good side having had a number of close wins over us this season. But that won’t put us off as we know we need to beat good teams to achieve our goals between now and the end of the season. We know how much endeavour needs to be put in over our next three games and all the players and the coaching staff are well up for it.”
