HAMILTON IS ON CLOUD 9

Two men sent off but Gary’s Lurgan Blues display heroics to come from behind to earn point at Glens

GLENAVON manager Gary Hamilton had every right to hail the trojan effort put in by his players at The Oval on Saturday.

The Lurgan Blues were down to nine men when they fell 1-0 behind to Robbie Mcdaid’s 76th minute penalty. But they dusted themselves down and made the most of a freekick out on the right wing, Conor Mccloskey whipping in a fine cross for Calum Birney to head powerfully into the net.

There was still plenty of graft required to secure the draw but the visitors put their bodies on the line time and again to leave the Glentoran fans bitterly disappointed with their lot.

“We were amazing today,” said a delighted Hamilton after the game. “From minute one through to 90.

“To a man , I can’t ask any more from them. They gave me everything, they gave the club everything. More importantly, they did it for themselves because they knew they let themselves down last week (losing 4-2 to Portadown).”

Glenavon had Andrew Doyle sent off for a lunging foul on Chris Gallagher in the first half then saw Peter Campbell dismissed on a second booking after he clipped the heels of Glentoran sub Ciaran O’connor with just over an hour played.

Hamilton (circled) was unimpressed with the performance of referee Lee Tavinder.

“I thought the first sending off was very harsh. I’ ll have to look at it again but there were other tackles like that in the game and nothing was happening to players. I think we were harshly treated at times. It has to be consistent and I’ve spoken to Lee about it.”

Man of the match Birney was every bit as happy as his manager was with the result, stating: “To be down to nine men and come back to snatch a draw here at The Oval shows the character of the team.

“We went out after last week’s shambles to right a few wrongs.”

Of his goal, Birney modestly added: “It was a great ball in from Conor, the pace was on it so I didn’t have too much to do.”

G l e n t o ra n man a g e r Mi c k Mcdaid was frustrated with his team’s display but insists he isn’t overly concerned about picking up just one point from the first two games of the season.

He said: “Our rhythm wasn’t fast enough in the first half but it was better in the second.

“After we got the penalty, that should be ‘good night, game over’.

“We had 90% of the play but when you score and then concede like that, you don’t deserve to get the three points.

“But it was the second game of the season, no panic here, we’ ll go about the job this week and get ready to play Coleraine.”

THE EQUALISER Calum Birney is mobbed after his header that earned his side a point TEMPERS FLARE A feisty situation in the first half of Saturday’s game LIFT OFF Robbie Mcdaid after scoring his spot kick