Tonight’s match in the 2017-18 Danske Bank season comes hard on the heels of Saturday’s opening day win at Warrenpoint and Glenavon will be looking to build on that result as Ballinamallard United visit Mourneview Park, kick off 7:45pm.

The Mallards were left feeling hard done by as a bizarre ‘hand of God’ goal by Curtis Allen was allowed to stand, the last-minute hand-ball depriving Gavin Dykes’ team of a point. That sense of injustice could be their motivation tonight as they look to pick up their first points. In the corresponding fixture last season the Fermanagh side stole all three points with a stoppage-time penalty in a game that Glenavon had totally dominated, missing a penalty of their own.

Glenavon recently appointed Kris Lindsay as first team coach and he was pleased with the attitude shown by the players on Saturday after Warrenpoint came back from 2-0 down to level at 2-2. “We started off really well, we were solid defensively and we looked decent going forward and we managed to get our 2-0 head start. It was very disappointing to concede just before half time; it was a poor goal from our point of view: no pressure on the cross and a free header inside the six yard box.

“They changed their shape at half time, Stephen Murray came on and they looked so much more dangerous; he’s a handful, a good player and they got it back to two each. Credit to our lads though, we didn’t let the heads drop, we worked hard and there were lots of positives for us. Obviously there are improvements we can make, it’s the first game of the season, we’ve a few new signings in and we’ve a young team and it’ll take time for things to bed in. It was important that we started with a victory and I think a lot of teams will come to Warrenpoint and struggle this year.”

Looking ahead to tonight’s game Kris said “No disrespect to any team, but we want to win all our home games and we believe we have the squad and players capable of doing that. Ballinamallard will come and cause us problems and they’re a good side. If we’re not on top of our game they will come and take points off us and that’s what we need to be wary of.”