Hamilton wants Glenavon to enter 2020 brimming with positivity

New leaf: Gary Hamilton is turning things around

GLENAVON boss Gary Hamilton is confident his side can head into the New Year with a renewed sense of optimism after a tough first half of the campaign.

Despite battling through injuries to key men and indifferent form all season, the Lurgan Blues are just six points off sixthplaced Larne after their 5-0 demolition job of Dungannon Swifts on Boxing Day.

But heading into the turn of the year, the Mourneview men have a healthier squad to work with and seem to have found a dynamic front pairing in Conor McCloskey and Jordan Jenkins, who were exceptional in downing the Swifts on Thursday.

That has Hamilton confident his side’s fortunes are about to take a turn for the better, while he was also full of praise for how his side have got to this point.

“We haven’t made excuses, we’ve gotten on with it,” lauded Hamilton.

“It’s an important period now, hopefully we put in another good performance and pick up another three points on Saturday. That’s what it’s all about — if we can get six points from six then that will be a good return, but they won’t be given to us. We have to earn them.

“If you get two wins in the next two games then that will set you up perfectly going into the New Year and that’s what we want. Hopefully we can get that.”

On paper, welcoming bottom side Warrenpoint Town to Mourneview Park today (3pm) should represent a great opportunity for Glenavon to make it back-to-back wins — and potentially a fourth in five games — but Hamilton is wary of getting too far ahead of themselves.

“They’re all difficult, there’s no easy games in this league. We’ve found that out this season, every game we’ve had has been difficult,” warned the Lurgan Blues chief, who has also admitted he will probably make changes to his line-up today given the twoday turnaround.

“The second half (against Dungannon) was probably the first half this season where we’ve been in total control, and that’s down to them having 10 men.

“Every game this season has been tough.”