Ards come to Mourneview Park on Saturday (ko 3pm) for Match 8 in the Danske Bank Premiership on the back of an encouraging 0-0 draw with Crusaders at Seaview last Saturday.

Gary Hamilton is expecting a tough game against Colin Nixon’s team. “There’s no easy games in this league and, as we saw last week, Crusaders had a great win against Linfield during the week, then they play Ards on Saturday and they find it tough to break them down. By all accounts, hearing what Stephen (Baxter) and Colin Nixon said, it was probably a fair reflection on the game.

“We have to make sure we’re ready for it. They’re fighting to get points on the board and, in games like this, if you don’t start right, with the right mentality, take your chances when they come along, then you’re in trouble. If you can get an early goal, like we did on Saturday, sometimes the opponents heads can go down and if you can capitalise on that in the next 10-15 minutes then sometimes the game’s over but it took us to the second half against Cliftonville to get our second one and then I thought we were really in no danger of not winning the match. I thought the boys had enough in the tank to see it through. Thankfully we got the third then unfortunately there was a wee bit of a mix-up between ‘Sykesy’ and Sammy that led to their goal. That was the only disappointment as I felt the way the lads defended last Saturday as a team they deserved a clean sheet.”

“This Saturday against Ards it’s going to be a different type of game. They’ll be more dogged and more defensive minded so we  have to make sure we can break them down and not get hit on the counterattack. Last week Cliftonville had a lot of attacking players on show and that meant they left gaps that we were able to capitalise on but Ards will be harder to break down and it’ll be harder to get space on the pitch as they’ll get their men behind the ball when we have it. We have to come up with ideas to get through that and it’s mostly down to the right attitude and if we have it then we stand a chance of winning a game of football.”

Don’t miss the @OfficialNIFL #DanskeBankPrem show this Friday from 6pm when our own Sammy Clingan will be one of the guests along with Ards boss Colin Nixon.

Matchday Sponsors

The Match Sponsor on Saturday is Glenavon’s oldest supporters club, the Triangle GSC.

The Ball Sponsor is Pretty Mary’s Moira. Located in the centre of Moira, Pretty Mary’s provides a complete night out all under one roof whatever the occasion.

The MOTM Sponsors are supporters Alan and Jonathan Burns.