LARNE V GLENAVON, A LOOK AHEAD
On Saturday 13th September 2025 Glenavon travels to East Antrim to face Larne in its seventh Sports Direct Premiership fixture.
The Inver Park men have won three and drawn one of their first five matches and are already challenging at the top of the table. During the summer they defeated Auda (Latvia) and Prishtina (Kosovo) in the first two qualifying rounds of the UEFA Conference League before losing to Portuguese First Division club Santa Clara.
“Larne are still a top side,” said Paddy McLaughlin. “I know they didn’t win the Premiership last season, but they have very good players and will again challenge for honours. Their performances and results in the Conference League demonstrate how formidable they are.”
The Glenavon boss admitted that his team’s performance in the 2-0 defeat against Dungannon Swifts last Saturday was very disappointing. “It would be easy to say that the two sendings off determined the outcome, but I don’t think that was the case. We didn’t do enough, particularly in the opening 25 minutes,” he said. “We started badly, stood off our opponents and allowed them to dictate the play. That is not what I want to see from us. We should be about aggression, hard work, quick turnovers, putting people under pressure and getting forward to support our frontmen. We have watched the video and talked about it together. The players know that we need to do much, much better.”
Michael O’Connor in action against Dungannon Swifts.
“To be fair, Dungannon are a very good team with good players,” McLaughlin continued. “But we made it hard for ourselves by allowing them to have so much possession and then conceding an early goal. After we lost Harry [Murphy], we were not completely out of the match, but we had a mountain to climb.”
Paddy revealed that club captain Barney McKeown has apologised for his petulance during the second half incident which led to Glenavon’s second red card. “Barney didn’t yell and shout, use abusive language or kick the ball away in disgust. On the range of sending off offences it was near the bottom of the scale. But he should not have given Jamie Robinson the opportunity to produce a second yellow,” said McLaughlin. “It is disappointing because he is a good leader and has been one of our better players. He knows that he should have handled the situation differently.”
McLaughlin took a measure of consolation from the fact that, despite playing with a numerical disadvantage for the entire second half, Glenavon did not throw in the towel. “If you lose a match, it is, to some extent, academic how many goals you lose by, but the lads showed a lot of pride,” he added. “Some other teams, particularly reduced to nine men, would have lost 4-0 or 5-0. We didn’t do that. We worked hard right to the end.”
Paddy had particular praise for teenage striker Paul McGovern. “Paul went on as a substitute with the team 2-0 down, a man down and to all intents and purposes out of the contest. But he still worked himself into the ground. He made countless high speed runs and harried opponents. Although he is still very young, he is mature beyond his years. He is absolutely dependable. He gives us energy, commitment and scores goals, as he did against Coleraine.”
Glenavon will be without suspended central defenders Barney McKeown and Harry Murphy for the trip to East Antrim. In addition, Kyle McClelland (shoulder), Michael O’Connor (knee) and Sean Carlin (groin) are all likely to miss out. There are also doubts about the fitness of Niall Quinn and Stephen Mallon. On a positive note, Francely Lomboto will again be available for selection. However, his second appeal against his sending off against Coleraine was unsuccessful. Therefore, he will start a three-match ban on Monday.
Francely Lomboto holds off a challenge by Dungannon’s Caolan Marron.
“This weekend we are without a number of senior players,” said McLaughlin. “Ideally, we would want some of them to be available for such a difficult fixture, but there is nothing we can do about it. There will be opportunities for some of the younger lads. That does not alarm me. We have a lot of talent in our squad. I trust all of them to perform well.”
| Glenavon v Larne, Last Season | |
|---|---|
| Date | Result |
| 27/09/24 | Glenavon 0 Larne 0 |
| 18/02/25 | Larne 1 Glenavon 1 |
| 22/03/25 | Glenavon 0 Larne 1 |
Other Glenavon teams in action:
(Free Admission to all games)
- Monday 15th September 2025 – Glenavon Reserves v Bangor Reserves, Mourneview Park, 1945 k.o.
- Friday 12th September 2025 – Ballymena United U-18s v Glenavon U-18s, The Showgrounds, 2000 k.o.
- Saturday 13th September 2025 – Glenavon U-16s v Dungannon Swifts U-16s, St. Patrick’s 3G, Banbridge, 1115 k.o.
