Sammy Clingan and Mark Sykes are both suspended for tomorrow’s trip to the Loughshore Hotel Arena as Glenavon take on Carrick Rangers. Sykes, who signed a one-year extension to his contract this week, starts a two game ban following his sending off against Coleraine and Clingan misses this game having clocked up his 5th booking in the same game. The hosts will be without former Glenavon defender Paddy McNally and midfielder Mark Surgenor who are both suspended following a 5th caution of the season.

James Singleton is still out with an ankle injury but Simon Kelly will get a game in the Reserves tomorrow and hopefully he’ll be fit to return to the squad next week. Everyone else is fit and available for selection.

Tomorrow’s game is closely followed with a re-arranged game at Windsor Park on Tuesday against Linfield. Gary Hamilton says “Every game is important but we’re not thinking about Linfield yet. It’s so important tomorrow that we get three points. The reason why we’ve done so well this year is probably because we’ve got results against the teams that we’re expected to and we’ve picked up the odd ‘bonus point’ here and there from the other ‘bigger’ games.

“It’s going to be a really difficult game tomorrow; the last time we played them there (in the Irish Cup) it was a draw over 90 minutes. Yes, we won it in extra time but we know it’s a difficult game so we have to go down there with the same mentality as we did in the league game earlier in the season. We ground out a two-nil win and that was a very, very difficult game as well.

Photo by Alan Weir

“First and foremost, we need to be up for the game tomorrow; our attitude needs to be right and we need to perform to our capabilities. We can’t go into the game thinking ‘Carrick’s down near the bottom of the league, it’s only a matter of turning up and we’ll get a result’. It doesn’t work like that and especially on their surface which can be a leveller. We have to be focussed and make sure we come away with three points.”

For those who can’t make it to Carrickfergus our Reserves have a home game against Linfield Swifts in the Premiership Development League. Kick off at MVP is 2pm.