WELDERS’ SEASONED PRO JACK Loan spell can be making of O’mahony

aged 16 and they gave me my first team debut straight away,” O’mahony explained.

“My debut was against KR Reykjavik in the Europa League and that was an incredible experience. “You can see the progress with so many young players from Glenavon. Mark Sykes is the latest example and he has come so far in such a short space of time. “Mark is a player who will get a move to a team across the water easily and I’m sure he’ll thrive.” However, O’mahony joined the East Belfast club in the summer and admitted: “I’m loving my time here, it’s a family club.

“A lot of my time at Glenavon was spent in the youth and reserve sides but playing competitive first-team football is a totally different game.

“Every match carries much more significance and you’re always fighting for three points, and you’re coming up against players with so much experience.

“Teams are beating each other all across the league and to be involved at this level is really a fantastic experience.

“I’m learning every week – you’re always told about how to see out results, how to avoid doing anything silly and unnecessary – you’re constantly adapting.”

Saturday’s convincing 4-1 victory at Carrick Rangers brought Norman Kelly’s side up to fifth and within three points of second spot.

“We got an early goal, the conditions were tough, it was end to end,” added O’mahony.

“It wasn’t until the second half that we really pushed on and it was the perfect way to bounce back from defeat [against Limavady] the previous week.

“We need to push on from this result because all season long we’ve been inconsistent – we have picked up really impressive results then dropped points in games we were maybe expected to win.

“On Saturday we needed the three points and it keeps us on track for a top six finish come the split.

“We have targeted maximum points from our remaining three games for the calendar year because we need those points to secure our targets.

“We want to push higher than just a top six finish and the aim is to get into a position where we can think about promotion.”

Next up for the Welders is a trip to PSNI on Saturday afternoon, with a 2pm kick-off at Newforge.

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