Glenavon is on the road to the Loughshore Hotel Arena in Carrickfergus for the 12th match in the Danske Bank Premiership as they take on Carrick Rangers, kick off 3pm.
Both sides had midweek wins, Glenavon overcoming Armagh City 2-1 in the Mid Ulster Cup and Carrick defeating Dundela 4-2 in the County Antrim Shield. The sides had contrasting fortunes in last Saturday’s league matches, ‘Gers losing 2-0 away to Ballinamallard as the ‘Ducks’ finally got their first league win of the season. Glenavon comfortably disposed of the challenge of Ballymena United, winning 4-0 at Mourneview Park.
With 3rd placed Crusaders taking on the Mallards on Friday night, flying high after Monday night’s 5-2 thumping of reigning champions Linfield at Windsor Park, the Seaview side could be level on points with Glenavon as our game kicks off on Saturday so there’ll be no room for complacency by the Lurgan Blues.
“Other games don’t bother us, we have to make sure we do our job, first and foremost,” Gary Hamilton explained. “We have to go down to Carrick tomorrow and put in a good performance and be on our ‘A’ game, work as hard as we’ve been working, show the desire that we’ve been showing and hopefully that, combined with the quality that we have in the team, we can get a win – that’s what we want.
“By the same token, Carrick won’t be pushovers as has proven in the four games we’ve played them there since they’ve come up. We’ve only beaten them once (5-1 in February 2016) and drew the others. It’s a difficult pitch but it’s the same for both teams and we can’t make excuses but you can’t always play the kind of football you want to play, you have to adapt your game to suit the conditions. We have to be up for the fight and showing the desire and hunger it takes to win games of football and to be fair to our lads this season they’ve been very good this season at it.
“Games like this proved tricky for us last season and we want to improve year in, year out. When you go down to a place like this where its difficult to play the way you want, we want to get back to winning these sort of games. It’s the same for every team that goes down there and you have to get that mentality and not make excuses. A sign of a really good team is that they can adapt to whatever conditions are and play the type of football to suit.”
Adam Foley and Caolan Marron will be unavailable after they and fitness coach Gerry Mulgrew were involved in a car accident on Tuesday evening prior to our Mid Ulster Cup against Armagh City. After the accident Caolan was taken to Daisy Hill hospital where it was confirmed he had sustained a broken nose. Adam and Gerry also suffered bruising as a result of the accident.
The club wishes Adam, Gerry and Caolan a speedy recovery.
Last Five League Results
Carrick: L L D W L. Top scorer Andrew Mooney (4)
Glenavon: W W D W W. Top scorer Andrew Mitchell (10)
