Aiming for some festive cheer

GARY Hamilton is desperate to give Glenavon fans some festive cheer with a Glenavon win over rivals Portadown on Boxing Day.

The Blues haven’t traditionally fared well against the Ports, especially in the Christmas derby match.

However, player/manager Hamilton is going all out to change that this season as he leads his in-form side across Craigavon.

Glenavon have now won three league games on the bounce and Hamilton is looking that run to continue on Saturday when they travel to Dungannon in order to set them up for the big derby game.

“There’s nobody that wants to win the game more than me,” he said.

“As a Glenavon fan we’ve suffered over the years. Like any other Glenavon supporter, I want to win the Boxing Day match. That’s the number one thing.

“Hopefully we can go into this game on the back of another win over Dungannon and still be on a high. We’re playing some good stuff at the minute.”

The fans aren’t the only ones that look forward to the derby games, says the boss. The players too will be excited about the game and Hamilton says they have what it takes to claim a victory.

“It’s great to play in the Boxing Day games,” he said.

“The players give up so much over Christmas and that’s the highlight of it all. They enjoy playing that match, especially if they’re playing in one of the derbies where there is a bit of atmosphere about them, like this one.

“It’s a big day in the calendar. It’s great getting up in the morning and getting ready for the game. There’s no better feeling than when you get a win. Portadown have won most of the Boxing Day games lately so hopefully we can get one for the fans this year.”

“We have very good players in our squad as well and we know that on our day if we compete with the attitude and desire that we have been doing, we can beat anybody. That attitude gets you a long way in football.

“However, Portadown’s budget is bigger than ours and it’s difficult to compete with that. They could afford to go out and beat other clubs to sign Gary Twigg.

“If we do get a result on Boxing Day, like we have done against Linfield and other teams who have much bigger budgets than us, then it would be a good achievement.”