Danske Bank Premiership
Glentoran 0 Glenavon 0
GLENTORAN have a mountain to climb if they are to make an impact on the Danske Bank Premiership title race.
They lost valuable ground last night against a gutsy 10-man Glenavon, leaving their Gibson Cup chances hanging by a thread. Rodney McAree’s boys are now 16 points off runaway leaders Larne, although they have played two games less.
The Glens should have been in front after six minutes. Jay Donnelly produced a wonderful cross from the right, which was met by Terry Devlin, whose point-blank header forced goalkeeper Rory Brown into a brilliant save.
Devlin was the guilty culprit again nine minutes later, this time he met a Rhys Marshall delivery that produced another save by Brown, who managed to scoop away the effort.
Seconds later Donnelly was only inches away from turning in a cross from Conor McMenamin following great work by substitute Junior – on for the injured Niall McGinn.
The chances kept falling to Devlin. He missed another big opportunity five minutes prior to the interval when he volleyed a Bobby Burns cross high and wide.
Glenavon had to wait until first half injury-time to get a sight of their opponents’ goal, but Jack Malone failed to capitalise on a little piece of magic on the left from Jordan Stewart.
It was the visitors who carried the threat after the restart, with Matthew Fitzpatrick managing to hold off a challenge from Luke McCullough before rifling in a fierce shot that Aaron McCarey saved at the second attempt.
Then, Stewart produced at little piece of trickery only to see his cut-back hoofed clear by Hrvoje Plum with Jack Malone ready to pounce.
But normal service soon resumed with McMenamin working the oracle on the right before forcing Brown into a smart save and, in a similar move, seconds later, he blasted wildly over.
The game erupted for all the wrong reasons 16 minutes from time when an ugly brawl broke out right in front of the two dug-outs. Malone and Glentoran’s Shay McCartan were both booked before Stewart was given a straight red card.
After that the Glens went in for the kill and were right out of luck when McMenamin again cut in from the right only to see his shot whacked off the line by Conor Kerr.
