Championship side Dergview are the visitors to Mourneview park on Tuesday night for a second round tie in the BetMcLean League Cup.

Dergview had an excellent 4-1 away win on Saturday as they defeated Ballinamallard at Ferney Park in their third game of the league season. After three games the Castlederg side lie 5th, equal on 7 points with Larne, Portadown and Ballyclare Comrades and just three points behind the league leaders Dundela.

The sides have met once before, also in the League Cup, in a second round tie in October 2012 when Glenavon won 2-1 at Mourneview Park.

Gary Hamilton will be fielding a strong side but the game does give him the opportunity to give some valuable game time to players who have had limited time on the pitch so far. “It’s important that they’re match fit and sharp if and when they get their chance. We’ve played four difficult games so far and there’s been a lot of football. I’m not going to change the whole team but certainly there are boys that have been on the bench that will get a chance to get 90 minutes behind their belt.

“We’re still going with a strong team and it’ll basically be the same squad as we had on Friday night. We want to win this game tomorrow night. We’ve now got basically near enough 20 players now that are capable of playing any game. If you look at the bench against Ballymena, for example we had Niall Grace, who has been outstanding in Europe for us and started the first two or three of the season, wee ‘JJ’ Jenkins who has been excellent, Stephen Murray and boys like Aaron Harmon who were on the bench before. You need to keep them all playing and getting game time. Conor McCloskey will definitely play a part tomorrow night.

“Hopefully tomorrow night we’ll be going with the same desire and hunger that’s been shown in the last few games and hopefully the boys that do get their chance will be hungry to impress and keep their place in the team. As I said, the other week ‘Harmo’ came on at half time against Warrenpoint and was excellent and because of that he got started last Friday night and again he was excellent. That’s what it’s all about, if you get your chance put in a good performance and catch the eye.”

“Dergview is a good club and they have a few players that I have watched over the years. Richard Clarke of Portadown was the manager previously and I know what Richard is like, having played with him, and he’ll have had good players around him and he’ll have instilled into them to be winners. Peter Allen has taken over now but we expect a tough game tomorrow night. It’s always the case in competitions like this that, when they come to Mourneview Park, it’s their cup final. They don’t get the opportunity to play on pitches like this every week when they’re in the Championship so it’s a big occasion for them and they’ll go out and give everything from the start of the game until the end. We have to match that because we’ve seen it in years gone by with Annagh United beating us on penalty kicks in the League Cup and we don’t want egg on our face.”

The game kicks off at 7:45pm and admission prices are £8 adults and £5 concession.

Please note that Season Tickets are not valid for this game.

Matchday Sponsors

The Match Sponsors are “The 1st Eleven” consisting of Angela Cherry, Leigh McClune, Maurice McKinley, Jim Cordner, Jim McKenzie, Mervyn McKinley, Ian Irwin, Jeff Magee, Wilson Collins, Colin Adamson and Eddie Drury.

The Ball Sponsor is Craigavon Koi & Aquatics from Deans Road Bleary and the Glenavon MOM Award sponsor is Eddy Kerr.

Many thanks to all for your support.