Saturday 19th January 2019, Kick Off 3.00pm
Things can change quickly in four months. When we last played Newry in September, we did so in third place in the table, in the middle of a nine game unbeaten run and ran out comfortable 4-1 winners with goals from Curtis Allen, Robbie McDaid, Marcus Kane and Dylan Davidson and a Newry reply from our former player Conall Delaney.
City currently sit tenth, eight points behind us with the same matches played. They come here on the back of four straight defeats and six games without a win. But they’ve beaten the likes of Coleraine and Cliftonville this season so we will need to be strong right from the start if we’re to build on last week’s win at the Brandywell. So far this window they have strengthened with the signings of Ger Pender from Bray Wanderers and former Glens youth player Pablo Cavalcante from Dundalk.
Gary Smyth: “I was delighted last Saturday. Not only with the win, was which obviously going to be very hard against Institute, but also the clean sheet. We have been hammering it into the boys to keep it tight at the back, because if you don't concede you always have a chance and if we can stay in games then we always have a chance. We have only had two clean-sheets all season prior to Institute – both against Ards. Our first came in the second game of the season and our second was in October, That’s an absolute disaster for a club like Glentoran, but hopefully that's us now started. I’m confident with the four strikers we’ve got we should score goals so if we can keep more clean sheets we should have a good chance in any match. So it’s been a much more positive week around the club and it’s put the boys in great form.
For Saturday’s match I can safely say that I know all about Newry as last season when I was managing the Welders we played them on five occasions. On the last day of last season they travelled to Tillysburn for the final league game. We had identical points and goal difference, so whoever won would finish 2nd. On that occasion they won 3-0 and deservedly took the honours for the runners up spot. Darren has done a great job and I look forward to seeing him today.
I’m delighted to say we have a full squad to pick from as for the first time in months, we’ve no injuries or suspensions and obviously Marcus Kane is available for selection. It’s up to us to make sure suspensions don’t have the same impact on the rest of the season as they’ve had on the past couple of months. I’m confident we’ll do that.
James Ferrin and Dylan Davidson both left the club earlier this week. Both lads were coming out of contract at the end of this season and both thought it better to move on and get more regular football than they were getting here. We would have been happy for both players to stay and fight for a place in the starting eleven, but we are rebuilding for the future here so I’m happy to create a couple of vacancies for the sort of players we need to improve us".
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.
