Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TITLE RACE FAR FROM OVAL NOW
Glens are in business
IT’S official – Glentoran are back in the title race after last night’s Big Two win over Linfield at The Oval.
A second derby victory in a week and a fifth straight top-flight win edged Mick Mcdermott’s men ever closer to the league leaders.
Out of contention and pawing for form in December, the Glens are now just nine points off the top with two crucial games in hand.
The damage was done in the opening period when Jay Donnelly and the lively Conor Mcmenamin pounced to edge the home side into a 2-0 lead.
Stephen Fallon pulled one back for the Blues in first-half injury-time, before Rhys Marshall put the game to bed with his first goal for the Glens on the hour mark.
It was an off night for Linfield who are now just two points clear of secondplaced Coleraine and peering over their shoulders ahead of Saturday’s home clash with Cliftonville.
Glentoran, without top scorer Robbie Mcdaid who was ruled out with injury, were ahead in the ninth minute when Donnelly pounced for his ninth goal of the season.
A healthy degree of credit has to go to January signing Mcmenamin who created a yard of space before drilling a teasing cross across the penalty area.
Donnelly still had plenty to do, but the striker made it look easy as he caressed a first time shot past Chris Johns.
The Linfield keeper denied Hrvoje Plum with a smart save before he was left holding his head in hands for his role in Glentoran’s second of the night in the 33rd minute.
What a calamity it was, the normally assured keeper rushing off his line and failing to claim a Donnelly flick-on on the edge of the area. Mcmenamin was alive to the opportunity and fired into an empty net for his third goal in six games since rejoining the club.
Linfield were back in it in first half added time when Kirk
Millar’s free-kick was parried by Dayle Coleing and
Fallon picked up the pieces to billow the net from close range.
But it was effectively game over in the 63rd minute when Marshall volleyed home his first goal for the Glens since joining the club from Shamrock
Rovers in January.
Mcmenamin’s cross was half cleared by Johns and while Marshall’s first effort was parried by the keeper, he made no mistake with a second volley into the bottom corner.
The pacy Mcmenamin (inset) almost added a fourth at the death after racing clear of Conor Pepper and Jamie Mulgrew, but Johns rushed out to block at close range.
Livingston Rangers
v
FOR the first time yesterday Steven Gerrard came close to admitting what the rest of the Scottish game has suspected to be true since the turn of the year.
That there really will be no stopping Rangers. Not this time.
The crowning moment could be as close as five days away so long as his team can fire out another six points from games against Livingston tonight and St Mirren on Saturday.
That would leave Celtic just one more slip-up away from the end of a decade at dominance by the time they run out at Tannadice on Sunday.
Up until now Gerrard has refused to get ahead of himself. Having felt the ground shift from beneath his feet at a vital moment once before, the former Liverpool man allows himself to take nothing for granted.
And yet even he can’t ignore the blindingly obvious any longer, no matter how hard he tries to resist it.
“We have to stay focussed and stay concentrated because nothing is done or achieved.
“We want to get over the line as quick as we can and the only way to do that is to respect Livingston,” was how he put it yesterday as he finalised preparations for a trip to west Lothian.
With the Lions still licking their wounds after Sunday’s cup final heartbreak at Hampden, Gerrard will proceed across the M8 with the usual caution and immaculate professionalism.
And yet there is no denying, the whiff of blood is now filling his nostrils.
He added: “March presents the opportunity to get over the line in terms of the league. We want to go and grab that as quick as we can. We don’t want to wait.
“We don’t want to stumble. We want to go and win this league and that starts tomorrow at Livingston.” Gerrard is urging his men to attack the big moment with all the same ruthlessness they have relied upon since the hunt began back in August.
He said: “It’s right to say we have some wonderful opportunities in front of us. We want to go and grab it and capitalise on it.
“And the only way to do that is to find performances and that’s what we need to focus on.”
We want to get over the line in terms of the title as quickly as we can