Following last weekend’s trip to Scotland, Glenavon travel to Milltown tomorrow to take on Warrenpoint Town in Danske Bank Premiership Match 11.

The last encounter between the sides saw Glenavon win 2-0 at Mourneview Park back in August, the first of only two wins in the league so far this season for the Lurgan Blues. The win, which proved to be fairly comfortable in the end, was earned with two first half goals, a penalty from Sammy Clingan and a strike by Andrew Mitchell.

The hosts have won just once so far so it’s certainly a big game with both sides desperately in need of the three points.

That win for Stephen McDonnell’s side came against Dungannon Swifts who had been leading 2-0 before the home side came roaring back to finish 4-2 winners. Gary Hamilton says “It’s another difficult game. When Dungannon went down there the other week they ended up beat 4-2; there’s no easy games in this league as I’ve said may times before. Warrenpoint will have taken confidence from that result, especially coming back from 2-0 down and they’ll probably also look at us and our results and our away form over the last wee while and that’ll give them a lift as well.

“We will have to look after ourselves and hopefully we can get a performance like we did in Scotland. It was a really pleasing performance over there and everybody, the Chairman and the Board and the fans were all impressed with our performance. I have to pay tribute to the fans who travelled. I thought they were excellent and probably, like the Crusaders game, we didn’t get what we deserved but the fans showed their appreciation at the end of the game which is always a telltale sign. The boys worked hard but just didn’t get the rub of the green. Hopefully we can go tomorrow and put that sort of performance in against Warrenpoint.

“We know that we have a strong group of players that are capable of getting results and we have to just work through this tough period. It’s been very tough for everybody, supporters, ourselves, the players, everybody. Hopefully when we come through this we can get back to being the team that we are; the players don’t become bad players overnight, albeit we have had injuries which prevents people putting runs together but we just have to get on with it.”

There’s not much good news on the injury front, sadly. In fact goalkeeper/captain Jonny Tuffey will be out for several weeks after damaging ankle ligaments in last week’s game with Raith Rovers and Caolan Marron picked up an abductor strain while playing for the Northern Ireland Under 21 team against Denmark last week which will keep him out for at least 2-3 weeks.

Also, as reported previously this week, young defender Leighton Jameson and striker Rhys Emerson picked up serious leg injuries while playing for the Reserves. “Rhys, who has been doing ever so well in the Reserves, and Leighton, two young players who had maybe been ready to kick on and push and challenge for the first team squad, are now out with long term injuries so it’s frustrating,” Gary concluded.

Form Guide

Last five league games

Warrenpoint: L L L W L

Glenavon: L L W L L

Head to Head

Last ten games in all competitions

Glenavon: W6 D2 L2 F23 A18, Average goals per game = 4.1

Last five results at Millfield

Warrenpoint Town 0-2 Glenavon
Warrenpoint Town 0-3 Glenavon
Warrenpoint Town 1-3 Glenavon
Warrenpoint Town 2-3 Glenavon
Warrenpoint Town 2-4 Glenavon

Andrew Doyle goes on a forward run. Photo by Maynard Collins

Match Officials

Referee: Evan Boyce, Assistants: Ken Ross, Neil Gillespie, 4th Official: Ken Gibbons