Preview: Coleraine v Glenavon

Glenavon travel to the northwest tomorrow to take on the league leaders Coleraine a week after suffering a narrow defeat at Mourneview to second-placed Cliftonville.

The teams last met back at the end of August when Coleraine ran out worthy winners with a 4-0 score-line. The damage was done by a Stephen Lowry goal either side of the interval which swung the game in the Bannsiders favour. Lowry repeated the feat in last week’s win over Dungannon Swifts, a goal in each half again earning his side a vital victory that kept them at the top of the table.

“We’ll select a team tomorrow that we think can go and be competitive and hopefully try and get a result for us,” Gary told us. “It’ll not be easy; Coleraine hasn’t been beaten by anyone this year and they have beaten Linfield and Crusaders twice in the league. They’re certainly no pushovers! To get anything tomorrow you need to be 100% on top of your game and you need to be prepared to roll the sleeves up and battle and fight and be committed. That’s the starting block and if you can do that and stay in the game and get a bit of confidence through staying in the game then who knows what happens. As I keep saying, regardless of Coleraine being a top side and not being beaten this year, everybody in this league is capable of beating every team and I’m sure Oran will say the same thing.

“It’s up to us to go out tomorrow and be competitive and the longer we can stay in the game, hopefully that breeds confidence and gives us belief and a platform to build on in the game and get a result. We have to do that; that’s a must. We need all 11 players working their socks off tomorrow, all performing and anything less than that will certainly lead to us not getting a result, that’s for sure. We’ve a chance against every team we play in this league but that’s the bare minimum and that’s what we’re expecting off everybody tomorrow.”

6/10/2018 Stephen Murray scores a header past Coleraine goal keeper Chris Johns. Mandatory Credit @INPHO/Brian Little

Andy Hall limped out of Tuesday night’s Mid-Ulster Cup tie after less than 20 minutes with a hamstring injury so he joins James Singleton (ankle ligaments) on the injured list. In that game Josh Daniels made his comeback from an ankle injury that had kept him out since he picked up the injury in the 3-1 win against Ballymena back in September. “Josh will be available for selection tomorrow but he hasn’t played in eight weeks and he only played an hour on Tuesday night but it might be a case of must do as we don’t have many options in that area so we’ll weigh it up and take it from there,” Gary concluded.