We had a chat with Paul Millar ahead of Monday night’s pre-season game against the Crystal Palace development squad and the Glenavon Assistant Manager expects a good work out for the Lurgan Blues squad. “Gary is planning to give a number of our young lads a game and actually we’re really looking forward to getting playing on our own pitch. It’s probably the best pitch in the Irish League and this year is the best I’ve ever seen it. To be fair to Geordie (Swift, Glenavon grounds-man) it’s some job he’s done; he’s really excelled himself – it looks absolutely magnificent.

“We play Newry on Thursday and Banbridge on Saturday so it’ll be a tight week but the lads had a good session of training on Saturday morning and these games are an important part of their preparations as we push towards the start of the season. Adam Foley has been flying and Marc Griffin is looking good and the young guys like Bobby Burns are going well.

“Hopefully it’ll be a nice night and we’ll see a few of our supporters out,” Paul concluded.

Admission prices for the game, which kicks off at 7:45pm, are £8 and £5.