Glentoran v Newry City
Friday 7th September 2018, Kick Off 7.45pm
On Friday evening we are delighted to welcome Newry City to the Oval for the first time since August 2010. The rise of Newry City from the fifth tier of Northern Ireland football to the Danske Bank Premiership through four promotions in just five seasons is one of the genuine feelgood stories in NI football in recent years. We have had some great battles with Newry City and Newry Town over the decades so the club and its supporters are warmly welcomed to East Belfast.
Last time we played Newry City was at the Showgrounds in March 2011 when Scott Young’s team ran out 4-3 winners through a Matty Burrows hat trick and one from Daryl Fordyce.
City have won two of their five league matches, both home wins against Dungannon Swifts and last week’s 1-0 beating of Cliftonville at the Showgrounds. While a lot of their players won’t be known to Glentoran supporters there will be a few familiar faces including goalkeeper Andy Coleman (ex Dungannon Swifts), forwards Stefan Lavery (ex-Dungannon) and Stephen Hughes (ex-Warrenpoint Town and Portadown) plus of course Conall Delaney who left the Oval this summer for more regular first team games at Newry.
Ronnie McFall: “I was generally pleased with our performance at Glenavon last week though disappointed with the final score. We dominated the match for long spells and if we’d taken our chances we should have extended our lead. As it happened we gave away an unnecessary penalty and that cost us. We have to stop giving away late goals as they’ve been costing us too many points. But overall I’m happy with how we’re progressing.
John Herron had a good debut and I’m confident that as he improves his match fitness John will link up very well with Conor Pepper in the middle and we’ll have a lot of quality in that area. Also having John available last week allowed us to try something different with Marcus Kane out left and I think that worked very well against Glenavon.
Sam Byrne is getting fitter with each match and I think he made a strong contribution in his late appearance at Mourneview. It’ll just take Sam a bit of time as he hasn’t had many games for Dundalk this season. Joe Crowe has had a couple of full matches for us now and I thought he did very well in the holding role against Glenavon. I think he’ll also go from strength to strength.
Congratulations to Conor Pepper on being voted Player of the Month by the supporters for August. Conor has settled in remarkably quickly for a lad who has played so little football due to his long term injury over the past couple of years. He’s been very influential in his five games so far
All the new lads we’ve brought in are top class and with them all on board I’m certain we’ll get stronger and stronger as the season progresses. As well as playing their own game their presence and the standards they’ll set is putting pressure on the established players. That’s essential as we have some very good players here who haven’t been under enough pressure for their places in recent years so they’ll also only get better in this strengthened squad.
I’m genuinely very pleased to welcome Newry City to the Oval tonight. It’s a true football fairytale to see them get into the Premiership. Everyone involved on and off the pitch at Newry deserves immense credit for this achievement. When they were promoted a lot of people expected them to struggle but their win over Cliftonville last week proves that everyone should take them seriously. We definitely will.
Nathan Kerr won’t be available since he’s been called up to the Northern Ireland Under 21 squad. That’s a great, well deserved honour for Nathan so congratulations and good luck to him. I know he’ll do Glentoran proud.
Apart from that we have a full squad available tonight. The only slight doubt is over Robbie McDaid who has a slight groin strain. We’ll wait and see over Robbie and give him every chance to make it.
Finally I must congratulate Elliott Morris on making his 700th appearance for Glentoran last week. It’s a fantastic achievement by Elliott and you need to be a very special player to make that many first team games, let alone for one club. He’s a very dedicated professional and a Glenman through and through. The whole Glentoran support should be very proud of Elliott. He’s been a great servant to this club and he continues to be a great player for us.
Tomorrow night's matchball sponsor is Sports Chaplaincy UK. We thank them for their generous support.
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.
