Danske Bank Irish Premiership Europa Conference League play-off semi-finals preview: Glentoran v Glenavon; Larne v Coleraine (both 7.45pm tonight)
GLENTORAN might feel they've killed a black cat by dropping a mirror on it while walking under a ladder, but their manager Mick McDermott insists "there's no doom and gloom" around the Oval.
Despite all their recent troubles, sympathy will still be in short supply for the Glens ahead of tonight's play-off semi-final at home to Glenavon, mostly because of their financial backing, but the Oval men really do need a change of fortune.
Little has gone right for McDermott's men recently. Notably, they lost their Irish Cup semi-final place to an administrative error, with Newry City restored to the competition.
As the appeal and arbitration rumbled on for almost seven weeks, all those off-field shenanigans surely had an adverse effect on the Glens' on-field performances.
Certainly they head into this semi-final on the crest of a slump, winless in the five post-split fixtures, with three losses, two of those at home, culminating in a 2-1 loss against runners-up Cliftonville.
They even had to wait until Saturday evening to find out who their play-off semi-final opponents would be, with Crusaders claiming the Irish Cup, so no play-off was required between Coleraine and Glenavon for the right to meet the Glens.
Glentoran had high hopes of 'the double' in early March, acknowledges McDermott, after edging past Newry on March 5 - but then the Joe Crowe ineligibility issue emerged:
"I think that day when we walked in [after beating Newry], we were joint first and in the semi-final of the Irish Cup. Within five minutes we were informed, 'We may have an issue here…'
"That definitely had an impact on the team, we can't deny that. But you can't blame it all on that. We have to move on.
"It's not where we wanted to be. Start the season, you've four routes into Europe: first, second, [Irish] Cup winner, or play-off winner. Now we're down to the last one, so we just have to get on with it, give it a go."
McDermott admitted that being denied a semi-final shot against eventual finalists Ballymena United had hit the Glens hard:
"The atmosphere around the club definitely got a bit of a knock, including the players' mood. We didn't take enough points, but they're all tough, tight matches…You have to win one or two, though, and we didn't.
""We now have an opportunity to still get into Europe and we have to show up and play. Glenavon, Coleraine, Larne, will all be thinking the same… We're in for tough matches."
To make it 'matches', to earn the right to host the final this Friday night, Glentoran must beat the Lurgan Blues, and Mcdermott insists they're in the right head-space to do so, despite recent results:
"There's no doom and gloom around our place. The atmosphere, the mood among the players, they're keen to get playing again…
"They want to win, they're talented. But you saw in the Irish Cup Final, sometimes the team that's predicted to win can find it very tough - everybody would have put their house on Crusaders winning comfortably, they were the hot favourites, but Ballymena, on the day, should have been out of sight with the chances they had.
"These games are like cup finals, so anything can happen. Do we have a talented team? Yes. Do we have a team that can win this? Yes. But the other teams also believe that and that's why you have to give it your best go, that's all you can do."
One upside - probably - is that Glentoran have won all four meeting's with Gary Hamilton's team this season, three in the league as well as a penalty shoot-out victory in the League Cup at Mourneview Park.
However, McDermott pointed out: "Glenavon have a lot of seasoned Irish League players and they were all hard games. This will be tough."
Yet with two of the NIFL Premiership Team of the Year in their ranks, attacking duo Conor McMenamin and Jay Donnelly, Glentoran should have the firepower to make the decider.
In tonight's other semi-final, fifth-place finishers Larne host sixth spot Coleraine at Inver Park. The east Antrim Reds are clearly the form team, unbeaten in their post-split games, having conceded only one goal, although they did only win twice.
Coleraine managed a solitary success, beating Glentoran 3-2, and lost their other four matches by a cumulative tally of 11 goals to two, meaning that they actually ended up with fewer points overall than Glenavon and Ballymena United in seventh and eighth positions respectively.
Yet despite their decent finish to the campaign, it's been a disappointment for Larne and their boss Tiernan Lynch, ending up 21 points behind champions Linfield.
Their play-off triumph last year led to an impressive showing in Europe, and they should make home advantage count against Coleraine, having won the two home meetings 4-2 and 3-0, although they did lose 3-1 and draw 1-1 at the Showgrounds.
