Saturday 10th April 2021 Kick Off 3.00pm
Tomorrow we welcome Dungannon Swifts back to the Oval for our third Danske Bank Premiership meeting of the season.
In the previous game at the Oval this season, Paul O'Neill's 17th minute goal looked to have set Glentoran on the way to victory, only for young Dungannon striker Rhyss Campbell to stun the home side with a deserved equaliser just 3 minutes later. By half time, however, the game had been turned on its head with goals from Robbie McDaid, Paddy McClean and Jay Donnelly giving the Glens an emphatic lead. Donnelly went on to add his second of the game in the final 10 minutes to secure a 5-1 win as McDermott's side gained a first league win of the campaign after a frustrating start. On our visit to Stangmore at the end of February, the Glens again took all thre points with a 1-0 win courtesy of a Rory Donnelly goal on thye stroke of half time.
Scoring goals has been a huge problem for Dungannon this season - with just 17 in 29 games the Swifts are the lowest scorers in the league at present. In the 10 games since the sides last met at Stangmore Park, Dungannon have suffered 9 defeats and secured just a solitary victory - defeating an out of form Crusaders side 2-1 at home in late March. In 14 away games so far, they have recorded just 1 win, 3 draws and 10 defeats, conceding 35 goals and scoring just 6 times.
It has been a tough start to life in senior management for new boss Dean Shiels, not helped by the news that Captain Dougie Wilson has agreed to join Ballymena at the end of the season, with the midfielder not selected for recent games and unlikely to feature for the club again. The experienced former NI striker Rory Patterson was brought in to add more firepower to the Swifts attack, and he may return today, following a two-match suspension after being red carded in the heavy home defeat to Glenavon. While Shiels can call upon the vast experience of 43-year-old Roy Carroll in goals, the rest of his squad is chiefly made up of young players who came through the club's renowned youth setup. Former Linfield striker Lorcan Forde missed Tuesday's defeat at Cliftonville, but experienced midfield duo Ryan Mayse and Mark Patton will hope for recalls to the side after both played substitute roles in the reverse at Solitude.
Mick McDermott: “Ballymena on Tuesday night should have been three points for us. We had the game well under control and created a lot of chances. We should have had the game put away well before they scored. We conceded a poor first goal to allow them back into the game, then a very poor decision by the referee to give a penalty kick that never was. But it just proves that if you don’t take your chances to put teams away early there’s always a good chance they’ll come back to haunt you, which they did on Tuesday night despite the fact that we were clearly the better team on the day.
Seanan Clucas was excellent at Ballymena as he has been since coming back into the team after a long spell out. Seanan isn't a full-time player and we’ve had to work around that. But he’s come in, done very well and scored two very good goals on Tuesday night. That proves what I've said all along. Everybody is likely to play a part between now and the end of the season. Seanan is a perfect example of that.
Now we’re going into a very tough run of five games in thirteen days starting on Saturday against a very talented young Dungannon team playing under a new manager. Despite their position, they’ve had some good results and I know they created chances against Linfield and Cliftonville recently. So they're going to be coming here full of enthusiasm and energy. But we’ll be prepared for that.”
As there will be no supporters permitted entry to this match, supporters are reminded that they can access our GlensTV live stream of the match by signing up here. Live match coverage can be purchased for £7 (which includes access to a full replay of the action), while a delayed stream will cost £3. Remember, our stream will commence just after 2.30 with a match preview programme, and our match commentator Aaron Agnew will be accompanied as co-commentator by our legendary, quadruple title winning skipper Paul Leeman.
Tomorrow's match sponsor is the Castlereagh Glentoran Supporters Club.
