OCTOBER 2005

October 22nd: 'SHAMBLES'

Glenavon was brought down to earth with a bump by their Mid-Ulster neighbours who were quicker and more determined right from the kick off. Loughgall took a well deserved lead in the 31st minute when Keith Percy slammed the ball into the roof of the net after McDonald had made a great save to deny Emerson's header from Topley's free kick and the Villagers could easily have been out of sight by half-time but for goal line clearances by Walker, McAlinden and Reid and a point blank save by McDonald to prevent Percy from doubling his tally.

Glenavon were outplayed in almost every area of the pitch and there was little improvement in the second half. Any chances of grabbing an unlikely point were dashed when McDonald failed to keep out Topley's in-swinging corner just after the hour mark. Emerson made the game safe and Johnny Black finished off a flowing move of real quality to complete the scoring.

"It was a shambles" was Glenavon manager Jim Brown's reaction after the game and few Glenavon fans would argue with that assessment.

Match report.

Post-match Reactions

Jim Brown: 'It was a shambles. I’m very disappointed, coming off a high last week after a good result against Ards, playing with ten men. A few of the supporters behind me shouted “That was rubbish” and I turned round and told them they were right. I can’t stand for that; I’m not happy. I don’t want to take anything away from Loughgall. They were the better side; they applied themselves better, they were more determined. They had chances and they took them; fair play to them, they were the better side.

'We were slack. Maybe we were too confident in terms of thinking ‘it’s Loughgall and they’re touted as possible relegation candidates’ and maybe mentally they thought it was going to be too easy. That certainly wasn’t the approach before the game or at half time.

'If it’s a bad day at the office for one day, fine, I accept it – we all have them but I was disappointed in the sense that we didn’t really trouble Loughgall – the goalkeeper didn’t really have a shot to save. If it’s a bad day at the office and we learn from it and we can take something from it and change our attitude next week and thereafter I’ll be happy with it.

'We’ve two hard away games coming up but we’ve got to apply ourselves and certainly change our attitudes from the way it was today. The first one’s Newry; let’s take that and see how it goes. We’ve a few injuries but I’m not going to cry because of injuries and so on – we’ve got to get on with it. There are a few people to come in and I’ll be having a word with Brendan Grimes about the second team. I had young Dan McAlea from the Reserves standing by today because we had a few fitness tests being carried out. I’ve been getting good reports about him in the Reserve team.

'I certainly wasn’t getting carried away with the fact we were up to fifth after last week and this has hopefully brought everybody down with a bit of a bump. We were well beaten on the day. We’ve got to pick ourselves up in training next Tuesday night and start looking forward to our game against Newry.'

Jim Gardiner: 'That’s probably the best we have played since I’ve been manager at Loughgall Football Club. The surface is just brilliant for football. Maybe some of the guys will start believing in themselves a bit more after that but certainly the football was tremendous.

'We’re not getting carried away; the target is to finish third from bottom of the Premier League. The guys know we have to put in that work rate every week or else we’ll just plummet again. I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the League: three wins from five is a brilliant start, better than last year, which I was pleased with. This year we’ve had a harder start. We were unlucky not to get a point at Portadown, despite what Mr McFall said.'

15th October: TWO OFF AS BLUES WIN TO GO FIFTH

Kieran O'Connor nipped in at the near post to turn Shea Campbell's 11th minute cross past the Ards keeper but Johnny Montgomery was sent off in the 34th minute for a rash challenge on Brian Adair. Despite this setback Glenavon could easily have extended the lead before half time. It was then that Manager Jim Brown was dismissed from the dugout when assistant referee John Haire called the referee over for something that Brown allegedly said.

Match Report

Post-match Reactions

Jim Brown: "I was absolutely delighted. The ten men who played out there for the duration of the game and Aidan who came on were absolutely magnificent. In terms of work rate you could see that Glenavon were on top. Since I’ve arrived here I’ve worked the players extremely hard and it’s been pretty demanding - the physical programme we’ve had - but I’m glad now because it showed there. I’m proud of every single player that was involved today.

"It was a tremendous goal – a great ball in by Shea and a great run by Kieran again. That’s what we’ve been working on and we’ve been asking both the midfield players to do. They are striking up a great relationship now in the sense that if one goes the other holds. Kieran’s been making those runs and it reminds me of Darren Lockhart who plays for Glentoran and he makes these runs and scores goals.

"I have to say, they all played their part and of course the ‘old master’ Gerard McMahon was outstanding. He was coming off a week when he had the flu and he played the 90 minutes and he didn’t want to come off. Apart from the skill level his work rate was absolutely superb.

"The players are starting to believe in themselves and gel together, which always takes time. The recent results hopefully show we are moving in the right direction. We haven’t done anything yet; we’ve won a couple of matches but it’s progress and certainly the way in which we won today impressed me in terms of their work rate and application – they were superb. I’ve been too long in this game to say we are going to do this or that. There’s a long way to go yet, there’s loads of points to play for, loads of games to be played but as long as we keep that sort of determination and focus I would hope we won’t be down in a relegation battle."

George Neill: "I was disappointed considering Glenavon were down to ten men after 35 minutes but I hate playing against ten men and we didn’t capitalise on it. We said at half time about keeping possession and making them work harder. Fair play to Glenavon they defended well and with a lot of passion no matter what we threw at them. We lacked a bit of spark up front and despite possession and territorial advantage, if we had been playing till now we still wouldn’t have scored."

OFFICE BEARERS ELECTED

At a recent meeting of the Directors of Glenavon FC, Roy Ferguson was re-elected as Chairman and Jim Carpenter was elected as Vice-Chairman. Mr Carpenter was also elected as Treasurer.

WEE MACKER ON COMEBACK TRAIL

Glenavon's promising young midfielder, Stephen McAlorum, has completed his second comeback game, playing for the Reserves in a George Wilson Cup match against Ballymena United. 'Macker' controlled the midfield in the game but the Reserves were unlucky to go out 2-3 on aggregate after Kevin Kelbie equalised for United two minutes from the end of the second leg. See the Reserves page for a match report.

NEW BOARD

At the AGM held last Wednesday evening the following were elected to serve on the Board of Directors of Glenavon FC:

E Drury, W Dewart, S Gardiner, J Carpenter, N Livingstone, C Geddis, G Savage, G Malone, R Ferguson, A Welshman, M Reith

The various office bearers will be elected next week.

1st October: FIRST WIN!

Stunning Campbell Strike Proves a Winner

With a strong wind blowing in their faces Glenavon almost took the lead after five minutes when Campbell squared the ball to Verner but he miskicked from 8 yards. Five minutes later an almost identical cross from Campbell was turned into his own net by Ryan McCann. Campbell scored an exquisite 29th minute goal to double Glenavon's lead when Verner laid the ball back to him and he curled a right foot shot into the top right corner from just inside the corner of the 18 yard box.

In first half stoppage time a rash challenge by Aaron Black on Frances Murphy conceded the penalty from which Darren Armour pulled a goal back for the Whites.

Gerard McMahon almost extended Glenavon's lead in the second half when he latched onto a poor clearance from Philip Mathews but the former Blues keeper did well to turn McMahon's 40 yard wind-assisted shot round the post. He made an even better save to deny Kieran O'Connor when he finger tipped his 25 yard screamer onto the post and away for a corner.

Five minutes from time McDonald made a great reflex save to prevent an equalising goal when Whites' substitute Damien McLaughlin's cross took a wicked deflection off a Glenavon defender.

On a day when the conditions made playing decent football difficult, Glenavon battled hard and took the chances when they came to earn a deserved three points.

TRIANGLE LEND A HAND

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