Danske Bank Premiership: Coleraine 2 Glenavon 3
WHILE Saturday’s thriller at the Coleraine Showgrounds was one for the fans to savour, Glenavon manager Gary Hamilton found the experience less enjoyable.
The Lurgan Blues were 3-0 up at Ballycastle Road and seemingly coasting to victory when the game was turned on its head with 13 minutes to go. First, teenager Kirk McLaughlin bundled the ball over the line to pull a goal back for Coleraine and, then when he went to retrieve the ball from the net, he became involved in an altercation with Glenavon ’keeper James Taylor. Taylor was eventually shown a red card after referee Tim Marshall consulted with his assistant, forcing goal scorer Matthew Fitzpatrick to plant himself between the sticks.
Within minutes, it was 3-2 as Curtis Allen converted a penalty after McLaughlin was adjudged to have been impeded. And the drama didn’t end there as Coleraine defender Adam Mullan was given his marching orders late on as the home side pushed for the elusive equaliser.
And although the goals from Fitzpatrick, Peter Campbell and Jack O’Mahony were eventually enough to guarantee Glenavon the three points and put them in pole position for the final European play-off place, Hamilton would have preferred a more sedate afternoon.
“That was probably very entertaining for the neutral, but I can’t say the same for myself,” the Glenavon boss admitted.
“Looking at the clock, you’ve got 12 or 13 minutes left, you’re down to 10 men and they’ve just got a goal back, you start to get a bit worried about what way it might pan out.
“I’ve taken the decision to send Fitzy [Matthew Fitzpatrick] into nets because we’re better having all our defensive players in the positions they’re supposed to be and there’s not much point Fitzy staying up front when he’s not going to get the service any more. It obviously helped that Fitzy is from a Gaelic footballing background and is used to using his hands, and he did pull off one really good save.
“So it was a nervous way to end the game, that’s for sure, but, fair play to the lads, they stood tall when it got tough and none of them went hiding. I asked them for a win today no matter how we got it and, thankfully, we got it playing good football. We also showed another side where we showed our character and our determination to make sure they saw the game out.”
As it stands, first-choice ’keeper Taylor will miss all five of Glenavon’s post-split games for an apparent attempt to strike McLaughlin with his head during that altercation. And although Hamilton was initially scathing of his ’keeper, the Glenavon boss had a different take after watching the incident back.
“We’ve watched it [the sending-off] back a couple of times,” he said.
“He [Taylor] doesn’t make contact with his head, but we need to look into the rules to see if the movement without the contact is enough to warrant a straight red card. There was 100 per cent no contact, no matter what angle you look at it from, so we’ll need to have a think before the deadline about whether we appeal or not.”
