Glens must hit heights in historic Brandywell return: McFall
GLENTORAN boss Ronnie McFall has warned his side not to drop their standards against Institute at the Brandywell today.
The east Belfast team went toe-to-toe with Crusaders, the reigning Danske Bank Premiership champions, last weekend and fully deserved their 2-2 draw, but wily McFall insists it will take another performance of power and passion to topple Paddy McLaughlin’s side on their synthetic surface
Alarmingly, Glentoran haven’t won in the League since October 27 when they thumped basement side Ards. Since then they have boarded a roller coaster of incon- sistency and a sequence of negative results that have sent McFall’s team plummeting into the bottom six.
They showed the other side of their game at the Oval last Saturday when goals from John Herron and Robbie McDaid helped the Glens pinch a valuable point in a game that deteriorated into farce when visiting Latvian referee Andros Treimanis reduced Crusaders to nine man having dismissed Rory Patterson and Kyle Owens, while home team’s John McGuigan picked up his third red card of the season.
“I thought we were very much the better team against Crusaders, especially in the first half,” said McFall.
“We played some outstanding football and created a number of great opportunities.
“Once, we went down to 10 men and Crusaders lost their two players, the game certainly lost a bit of shape... it became ragged.
“If anything, I thought we were the team most likely to go on and win the game, so the performance should help generate a bit of confidence in the squad.”
With McGuigan facing an automatic ban, McFall will be forced to reshape his team for the historic visit to the North West venue — it will be Glentoran’s first League game there since they claimed a 2-2 draw with Derry City on February 12, 1972.
“Conor Pepper is still out suspended, while we’ll be missing McGuigan,” added McFall. “On the plus side, Curtis Allen and Nathan Kerr will return to the squad which is a boost because they are two big players for us.”