Danske Bank Premiership: Glentoran v Linfield (Monday, 2pm, live on BBC Sport NI)
Former Glentoran and Linfield striker Chris Morgan feels that Monday's derby clash between the Big Two is a game Glentoran can't afford to lose if they are to revive their faltering title challenge.
Following their narrow defeat to Cliftonville on Tuesday night, Glentoran are now nine points behind Danske Bank Premiership leaders Larne and four adrift of the Blues.
Mick McDermott's men have two games in hand on the four teams above them, but a sharp downturn in form has seen them lose ground in what is shaping up to be the most open title race in years. They have won just once in their last six games league games, a run which was sparked by defeat to Glenavon on November 8.
With star forward Conor McMenamin struggling through injury and his strike partner struggling to find the net, Morgan, who was a league title winner with the Glens in 2005, feels the St Stephen's Day derby clash is the ideal time for them to reignite their title challenge.
"The Glens have dropped off massively from where they were at. Go back to end of October, start of November and they were sitting in a really strong position and that's how quickly in can turn. One or two results," Morgan said
"The first game was Glenavon, Glenavon beat them, which was a surprising result and it's just been like a domino effect after that and they haven't been able to recover.
"For them, I would look at it more so as a 'let's not lose the game'. I don't think the staff are going to talk to the players like that, but I think they may think like that privately - we need to get out of this without losing and start to build again. Because, while they're sitting now having got knocked back, if they are able to rebuild things and have another run like they had at the start of the season, it can look an awful lot different again.
Despite a rocky start to he season and the psychological blow of missing out on becoming the first Irish League club to qualify for the group stages of a European competition, Linfield have hit a rich vain of form to get right back into the title picture.
Unbeaten in nine games and with David Healy scooping the Manager of the Month award for November, the Blues are looking a bit more like their old selves reckons Morgan.
"There is certainly a inevitability about the way they have got themselves back into it and I think the impact of the European exit was partly why they started so slow," the former Blues striker said. I think the psychological damage of that took them a long time to get over.
"And I actually think the 3-0 loss to Glentoran at Windsor [in October] has possibly been the thing that has started their season. I think that was possibly what they needed.
"Glentoran lorded it a bit that night and maybe celebrated it in a way that might have poked the bear a wee bit. I think Linfield have looked at that game, they've reflected on it and thought 'right, we need to get our house in order here and stop feeling sorry for ourselves.'
"There's been a change and they now look the way Linfield tend to look. There is that thing where, quite often, whoever finishes above them, will win the league."
A Gibson Cup winner with both clubs, Morgan has a great memories of playing for both clubs, especially from the festive fixtures between the teams.
"They're equally important on both sides, having been on both sides, there's no difference. From a playing point of view, they are games you really look forward to playing in and it's always the biggest crowd," he said.
"I probably played in about 10 of them, maybe slightly less, and I think there was maybe only two occasions where there was a winning team. They were mostly draws, and tight and edgy games."
