New Year's Day at Mourneview Park

Warrenpoint Town are the visitors tomorrow as Glenavon look for a win following a run of three draws that has seen the Lurgan Blues slip to fourth place. “In every game bar the Crusaders game, and the Ballymena game when we at least deserved a point, we’ve deserved to win the other games as we’ve created more chances. When we make a mistake it’s punished but we don’t punish the other team but that’s football,” Gary Hamilton told us.

“We go out to win every game we play but we just didn’t take our chances and, okay, we conceded three goals on Saturday, but we created enough chances to win the game even conceding three goals. We needed to be better defensively against Institute. We kept two clean sheets in the games against Coleraine and Linfield so we haven’t been that bad defensively but I keep going back to the fact that we’re creating far more opportunities than the other teams. Whether it be the centre forwards, or the wingers or defenders when they come up for set plays, we need to start taking our chances when they come along.”

Sammy Clingan is out tomorrow after being forced to come off at half time with a groin strain on Saturday, Caolan Marron, who missed the Stute game with a dead leg, will be assessed in the morning. Ben Doherty has signed for Coleraine and Mark Sykes will not play a part tomorrow pending his move to Oxford United.

New signing Seamus Sharkey isn’t available as the transfer window doesn’t officially open until tomorrow.

Gary also spoke to us about Mark Sykes’ pending move to Oxford United. “Mark deserves his chance. He’s been a great servant to this football club. He’s been a tremendous player in the Irish League, he’s entertained everyone that’s watched him, not just our fans, and he’s someone that I feel has the potential, if he keeps his head down and works hard and listens to the coaches over there as well, he’s only going to get better with full-time training. For me, he’s another potential Northern Ireland international. In the time we’ve had him we’ve found he’s been a really good lad with a good attitude and we’ve no reason to doubt that he’ll go over there and become an even better player, represent Northern Ireland and, hopefully, Oxford United will be a stepping stone for him.”

Photo Alan Weir

Head to Head

Last ten games in all competitions

Glenavon: W5 D4 L1 F22 A15, Average goals per game 3.7

Form Guide

Last 5 league games

Glenavon: L W D D D

Warrenpoint: D L L D L

Stats a Fact

Should Andrew Mitchell score tomorrow it will be his 100th senior career goal, having bagged number 99, his 10th of the season for Glenavon, in the 3-3 draw with Institute on Saturday.

Photo by Alan Weir

Matchday Sponsors

Match Sponsors: Geoffrey Roland Plumbing & Heating and Lurgan Mechanics Institute.	Ball Sponsor: Clifford Kidd Car Body Repairs	Man of the Match Sponsor: Robert James Fine Clothing Portadown