Burrows signs until end of season

The 26 year-old forward, whose world-renowned back-heel goal against Portadown was nominated for the 2010 FIFA Puskas Award, signed a deal until the end of the season on Tuesday evening.

Burrows had recently been transfer-listed at the Oval, having made only one start and scored one goal this season to date.

The forward began his career at Dundela before signing for the Glens and enjoyed a loan spell at Loughgall in 2008. He now links up with ex-Glentoran team-mate Gary Hamilton, and is the Glenavon gaffer’s sixth signing of the January transfer window, following Brian McCaul, Kris Lindsay, John Convery, Tony Grant and Kyle Cherry.

Meanwhile Anto McGonnell has signed for Cliftonville having handed in a transfer request after being dropped from the squad when he missed a training session earlier this month.

McGonnell had of course broken into the Glenavon first team earlier in the season and had been a mainstay in Gary Hamilton’s squad since the gaffer took over the job in mid-December.

“Anto was in the squad for the first five matches after I came in,” said the Glenavon boss.

“He had said to Gerard (McMahon) that he was going to leave if he didn’t get a chance but I involved him in the first-team squad.

“Then he missed training in the week after the Distillery game. I have rules at the club that I’m going to stand-by. If you miss training, you’re not going to be in the squad. It’s not one rule for somebody and another rule for somebody else; it’s one rule across the board.

“That’s why he ended up out of the squad for the Portadown game and he hasn’t been back since then. He asked me for a transfer and I’m not going to stand in the way of anybody who doesn’t want to play for Glenavon.

“There’s no point keeping him here because if he doesn’t want to be here, he’s not going to be any use to the club.

“In my eyes, he’d have as much chance of playing for the Glenavon first team as he would of playing for the first team at Cliftonville.”

Despite the loss of McGonnell, Hamilton is pleased with his January transfer dealings and remains optimistic of an upturn in form that will lift his side off the foot of the Carling Premiership table.

“Now that we’ve added John (Convery), Tony Grant and Brian McCaul, there’s a lot of talent in our side,” he said.

“With the likes of Ciaran Doherty and Niall Henderson in midfield, there was a lot of talent already at the club. Kyle Neill’s an experienced pro and Davy O’Hare’s been excellent since I came in too.

“I’ve confidence in the players that I have. All we can hope for is that we start clicking because there’s definitely potential there. In my eyes, there are a lot more positives at the club now.”

Hamilton has also been pleased with the upturn in form of some of his existing players:

“The performances of Kyle Neill, Jay Magee and now Mark Turkington are big plusses. From talking to Glenavon fans, they hadn’t been doing as well as they could have this season. They are three big players for Glenavon and it’s good to see them doing well and getting their confidence back.”