Glenavon travel to Solitude on Saturday to take on league leaders Cliftonville.
The Reds have been in fine form in recent weeks, as Glenavon boss Gary Hamilton points out.
“Cliftonville have been flying,” he told the club’s website.
“They’ve only lost one game so far this season and that was last weekend.
“If you look at the game and look at the stats, Ballymena have beaten them against the run of play. Cliftonville had a lot more shots on goal and a lot more possession than Ballymena had. Sometimes that’s the way football goes.
“They’ve been on a good run and in Paddy [McLaughlin] they’ve got a great manager so it’s not going to be easy – it never is down at Solitude.
“However, we went there a couple of times last year and ran them close so hopefully we can take confidence from our win a couple of weeks ago against Dungannon Swifts.
“If we can put in another similar performance then hopefully we can get a positive outcome.”
While Glenavon may have ran Cliftonville close in their most recent outings, the Lurgan Blues will looking to end a streak of results which has seen them win just one of their last 10 meetings against the north Belfast side – a 4-0 win at the end of April 2019.
Indeed, Glenavon have failed to win on each of their last six visits to Solitude, backing up the manager’s point about Cliftonville’s home ground being a tough place to go to; a 3-1 win in 2018 being the last time they won there.
In terms of team news, Andy Waterworth misses out as he is working with Northern Ireland U17s and, as such, is not allowed out of their COVID bubble.
Michael O’Connor is out as well while Jamie Doran will miss out too, having broken his toe on Monday night in Glenavon U20s’ defeat to Crusaders.
Mark Haughey also remains on the injury list, but James Singleton and Conor McCloskey will return into the squad.
Gary added, “They’re not fit. They wouldn’t even be fit for a half yet because we need to get them a game in the reserves, but they will be on the bench tomorrow because we’re down in numbers.
“We would have preferred not to involve them and play them on Monday night with the reserves, but needs must.”
Fans are reminded that this game is pay at the gate and therefore no tickets are necessary for admission.
MATCH OFFICIALS
REFEREE: Keith Kennedy
ASSISTANT REFEREES: Andrew Nethery, George Argyropoulos
FOURTH OFFICIAL: Shane McGonigle
LAST TIME OUT: It was the proverbial game of two halves at Solitude with two first half goals ultimately costing Glenavon dearly against Cliftonville.
Goals from Aaron Donnelly and Ryan Curran put the Reds two goals up inside the first half hour of the game.
Peter Campbell did pull a goal back early in the second half but despite a better display in the second period the visitors couldn’t do enough to earn a share of the spoils at Solitude.
