Saturday 13th May
Kick Off 4.30pm
On Saturday we finish the 2022-2023 season with the visit of Cliftonville to the Bet McLean Oval in the Final of the UEFA Europa Conference League playoffs. There is no need to emphasise the importance of this win to both clubs.
Like Glentoran, this is Cliftonville’s fifth European Playoff campaign since the inception of the new qualification route in 2016. They have been successful on 3 of those occasions - all of them at Solitude against Glentoran - while being defeated 5-3 at Solitude at the Semi Final stage by Glenavon in 2017 and 3-1 by Larne in the 2021 Final at Inver Park.
Wednesday night’s Semi Final win over Coleraine was only their second in the last 10 games in all competitions and brought welcome relief after a 5-game winless run in the post-split fixtures and the confirmation of manager Paddy McLaughlin’s departure to take up the Assistant role at Derry City.
Midfielder Rory Hale will miss out again as he serves the second game of a suspension picked up for a red card in the final league game at home to Linfield. Defender Levi Ives and midfielder Kris Lowe returned to the side against Coleraine, with Luke Turner moving back into the centre of defence in place of Odhran Casey, who missed out on the squad entirely.
Rodney McAree: “For the Glenavon semi-final on Wednesday night we set our stall out that we wanted to score early as when we’ve done that recently we’ve managed to settle quickly and build well on it. It was particularly important given who we were playing as in the last few games against them we had good chances early but didn’t take them and ultimately those games went against us. The first goal had a bit of good fortune about it but Luke did very well to get onto the second ball and get us the lead.
The third came at a very good time for us as it gave us the chance to make a few changes and give some other lads some minutes. The substitutes who came on were exceptional, all of them showing great endeavour and with Jay and Rory both getting goals that they took very well. Conor was exceptional. He has had a frustrating few weeks by his standards after coming back from a bad injury. But he took his goal very well and was involved in two others as well as making a lot happen for us. He was back to his old self which has hopefully come at a good time for both him and the team.
We expect a tough game from Cliftonville on Saturday. They’re a very good side and had to beat a good Coleraine side to get to this final. But we’re at home and this is one everyone in and around the squad is looking forward to. A lot of the players were in the final last season and felt the pain of that defeat, But they’ve learned from it . Obviously we expect a difficult game but we’re also a very good team so we’ll go into it in a very positive frame of mind and a determination to make sure we’re playing in Europe next season.
Finally, as this will be the final game of the season I want to say a personal thanks to the supporters who have been so consistently supportive of us since Tim, John, Elliott and I stepped into our new roles in January. I'm sure on Saturday everyone will turn out in great, noisy numbers as we are all determined to pay back that support with the right result and with European football in 2023/24. Have a great summer.”
Tickets for this game for both home and away sections are available at https://www.glentoran.com/tickets . Season tickets are not valid for this game.
As always at home matches, we strongly request that supporters respect the rights of the local residents by parking well away from housefronts in the immediate locality. There is plenty of available parking at the Holywood Arches Heath Centre.
Illustration by Beth Stafford
