Glenavon travel to Solitude tomorrow for the first time this season to take on Cliftonville. The Reds suffered their first defeat under new manager Gerard Lyttle when they lost 3-1 to Linfield after extra time in Tuesday night’s County Antrim Shield game at Windsor Park.

The sides met at Mourneview Park on the opening day of the season with the Reds coming away well-deserved 1-0 winners when Glenavon put in what was the worst performance of the season. Gary Hamilton will be impressing on his players the importance of working hard and closing down the ball. He can also remind them that in the two games at Solitude last season Glenavon came away with four points having drawn on the first visit 3-3 thanks to a Ciaran Martyn hat trick and won the other 3-2 with a Kevin Braniff double sandwiching an Eoin Bradley strike.

“We had good results against them last season at Solitude but we had a full-strength squad to choose from for those two games” Gary said. “This season we’ve been really unfortunate with injuries, especially in the centre of defence and the central midfield. It’ll be tough tomorrow and we’ll need to work hard and take our chances when they come along. If we do that we’ve every chance of getting a result,” the Glenavon boss concluded.

Andy Kilmartin returns after serving a one-game ban in Tuesday’s Mid-Ulster Cup game and Daniel Kearns is in contention for his first league start after making his debut as a substitute at Seaview last weekend and playing the 90 minutes up front against Tandragee Rovers with a goal and an assist to his credit. Declan O’Brien scored a hat trick in that game as he makes his comeback to match fitness and he also could feature tomorrow.

Conor Dillon is still out with an ankle problem but Simon Kelly, who played the full 90 minutes at Seaview in what was only his second start since September, also came through training on Thursday night.

Supporters’ Buses

The @TriangleGSC bus leaves MVP at 1.30pm and Moira at 1.45pm. The William Walker GSC are sharing with @Victoria_GSC leaving the MVP clubrooms at 1.45pm