GLENAVON V CLIFTONVILLE, A LOOK AHEAD

On Saturday 31^st January 2026 Glenavon faces Cliftonville at Mourneview Park in its next Sports Direct Premiership fixture.

The North Belfast men presently occupy sixth place in the Premiership table with 31 points from 22 matches – eight wins, seven draws and seven defeats. This month they have lost Odhran Casey (Shelbourne), Jack Keaney (Corpus Christi) and Shea Gordon (Dungannon Swifts) but have brought in Brian Healy (Harland & Wolff Welders) and Liam McStravick (Airdrie). This week Glenavon centre half Kyle McClelland moved to Solitude on loan to the end of the season.

Michael O’Connor expects Cliftonville to be a tough opponent. “Anytime you play Cliftonville it is a difficult game,” he said. “They lost to Carrick Rangers in the final of the County Antrim Shield recently. They will be smarting from that. Obviously, they have lost a few players, but they have also added some so it will be interesting to see how they set up.”

Last time the clubs met, Glenavon lost heavily at Solitude. Michael hopes that there is no repeat of the defensive mistakes which characterised that performance. “We went a goal down but got ourselves into the lead only to concede twice just before half time,” he reflected. “Then they lost a man early in the second half, but we weren’t able to capitalise and conceded two more goals. It is the worst we have played since Doyler, Fergie and I came in.”

“Since that match, we have brought in some new faces and have had time to develop a way of playing,” the Belfast man continued. “We have come a long way. What happened that day is in the past. I feel a lot more confident about the team’s prospects ahead of this weekend’s game.”

Cliftonville, in December, was on an excellent run of form. This time it has been much less consistent. “There is no doubt that it is better to play a club which has had one or two disappointing results than one which is at the top of its game,” he added. “They had the defeat in the County Antrim Shield and have had a few poor league results. There has also been the disruption of the takeover which has, in the end, not happened. Facing them now, at the end of January, I am a lot more hopeful than I was six or seven weeks ago.”

O’Connor recognises that, to win, Glenavon will need to negate the Reds’ firepower in attack. “Jim [Magilton] likes to go with two up top,” he continued. “He has Brian Healy who has scored twice already since joining from the Welders; he has Joe Gormley, probably one of the best strikers ever to play in this league; he has young Liam McStravick who has enormous potential; and he also has Ryan Curran. So, he has plenty of options. But we will do our best to be disciplined and defend well.”

Michael hopes that his side can be as potent as they are likely to be in the final third. “Last week, at Coleraine, we had loads of possession but didn’t create enough,” he said. “That was partly down to their good defending, but it was also because we made wrong choices and didn’t produce enough quality crosses. We also didn’t take advantage of at least four good set piece opportunities. We need to be better when we get free kicks in and around the opposition penalty area. That is going to be really important for the rest of the season. The bottom line is that we must be ruthless.”

Although Glenavon lost 2-0 at the Showgrounds, the Belfast man took many positives. “I thought virtually everything about last Friday was good apart from the result,” he added. “Our shape out of possession, particularly in the first half when they had a lot of the ball, was excellent. Over the 90 minutes they really only had three decent chances. When you restrict a team with players like Joel Cooper, Shevlin, Akintunde and Jamie McGonigle to a handful of opportunities it is a good sign. We dominated the play for 30-35 minute at the start of the second half. That is really important because if you go to a place like that and don’t keep the ball you get punished. I thought our high press worked well. We were aggressive and were brave in possession. The only negatives were the two goals we conceded, both from fast breakaways, and the fact that we didn’t work their keeper enough.”

Michael praised the defence and midfield for its contribution to the encouraging performance at Coleraine. “We moved Paddy Burns to left back and brought Barney [McKeown] into the middle alongside Murph,” he explained. “All of them did well. Sean Carlin, considering it was his first start for two months or more, was excellent. Niall Quinn was the same. Those five plus Jordan McMullan and Jacob Carney were solid and gave us a really good platform.”

Although Nathaniel Ferris came off during the second half with what appeared to be an injury, O’Connor revealed that it was nothing more than a dead leg. The Magheralin man trained on Tuesday night.

Conor Falls and Ben Wilson both missed the trip to the North Coast. “Conor, unfortunately, has a broken finger,” Michael explained. “He isn’t available for the next two games, but we hope to have him back immediately after that. Ben took a bad gash on the ankle against Glentoran. We have had the injury scanned and are waiting to receive the results. Hopefully, he won’t be out for very long.”

Oran O’Kane continues to make good progress but is still likely to be an absentee until at least the middle of February. Kris Lowe is expected to be back in full training next week and could be available to play some part in the Clearer Water Irish Cup tie at Solitude.

In August 2025 Glenavon lost 3-1 to Cliftonville at Solitude and in December succumbed 5-2.

The match sponsor is Edsel Muldrew. Edsel, a retired businessman, is a lifelong supporter and generous benefactor. The matchball sponsor is Paul Greenfield. The McCracken’s Brewery “Player of the Match” sponsor is Brownlow House. Glenavon is indebted to all its financial backers.

The matchday charity is Just A Chat which helps young people to tackle mental health challenges. Please support its work generously.

Other Glenavon teams in action:

(Free Admission to all games)

• Monday 2^nd February 2026 – Dungannon Swifts Reserves v Glenavon Reserves, Stangmore Park, 1945 k.o.
• Friday 30^th January 2026 – Coleraine U-18s v Glenavon U-18s, The Showgrounds, 2000 k.o.
• Saturday 31^st January 2026 – Dungannon Swifts U-16s v Glenavon U-16s, Stangmore Park, 1030 k.o.