McDermott calls on his boys to banish blues

GLENTORAN boss Mick McDermott has urged his boys to end a horrible three-game losing streak in today’s clash against Carrick Rangers at the Oval.

Defeats by north Belfast rivals Crusaders and Cliftonville have resulted in McDermott’s men dropping out of the top six in the Danske Bank Premiership table for the first time this season, while they made their League Cup exit in midweek when pipped 2-1 by Coleraine at the Showgrounds.

McDermott, however, took the opportunity to reshuffle his pack at Ballycastle Road, handing James McCarthy, Antonio Duric, Salou Jallow, Jonny Frazer and Tom Byrne a starting shirt, along with veteran goalkeeper Elliott Morris, who is also coach at the club.

The Glens, in fact, had to play for over an hour with 10 men after McCarthy received a second yellow card for bringing down Jamie Glackin. The battling east Belfast side almost salvaged a draw when new boy David Nasseri hit a debut goal, while Frazer had two efforts disallowed.

McDermott was far from despondent with the performance. He said: “We travelled up to Coleraine without our four main strikers, Curtis (Allen), Darren (Murray), Robbie (McDaid) and Paul (O’Neill), but I felt the boys who came on did a great job.

“Antonio (Duric) worked hard up front and he was well supported by Jonny. Navid also came on for his debut and looked lively, he took his goal really well.

“I think there is a lot more to come from him. Although we have been playing well and not getting the rewards we have deserved in certain games, it’s a results-based business, so it’s important we get back to winning.

“It’s often said, there are no easy games in this league and I’m sure Carrick Rangers will be coming to the Oval looking for a positive result.

“We were disappointed in the manner of our last league defeat by Cliftonville when the situation was taken out of our hands to a certain degree with the dismissal of Murray.

“But there is no point in dwelling on it, we must now start picking up points to get us back into the top half of the table.”

For the first time in many weeks McDermott will have a full-strength panel to choose from, with the exception of the long-term causalities, Curtis Allen and Calum Birney.

“After the midweek performance, I’ll have a selection headache, which I’ll not complain about,” added McDermott. “There were a lot of positives to take from the game.

“Although our defeat was both disappointing and undeserved, it again highlighted the fact if you don’t take your chances, you won’t win matches.

“When you take into account that our team was changed radically due to injury and suspensions and, we had to play for over an hour with 10 men, then the boys must take a great deal of credit because we controlled the game for long periods.

“There were many positives, now we must start turning our possession into goals.” Defiant: Glens boss Mick McDermott is hungry for a positive result