Chance to pull clear

Boss Gary Hamilton has long stated his intentions to ensure the club stays clear of the relegation battle and a win on Saturday would put his side 11 points ahead of basement side Distillery.

That game comes just three days before the team’s Irn-Bru League Cup semi-final and Hamilton is also keen to set up that game with a confidence boosting win.

“It’s a massive week for the club,” he said.

“First of all, Distillery is a massive game for us. We want to get the three points and put a further gap between them and ourselves. We said at the start of the season we don’t want to be in the position where we can go down so the more points we can get and the further ahead of those teams we can get, the better.

“Distillery don’t seem to be getting the rub of the green at the minute. I watched their match against Cliftonville and they could have had a penalty in the first half.

“Hopefully we’ll get a good result on Saturday because that’s the first and foremost for this club. We need to win our league games and get as far up the league table as possible to be able to attract better players to the club.”

The boss also hinted at an unchanged line-up after his side deservedly beat Coleraine 2-0 last weekend.

“We’ll have to wait and see if Eddie McCallion will be okay to play but providing he is and barring any injuries in training this week, there won’t be any chances to the team,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of quality in the side now and when we look at our bench, we have players who can change the game. Even if someone drops out of that team, we can make a chance. It’s a big positive for the club that we have players like Eddie McCallion and Niall Henderson back in the squad with the likes of Brendan Shannon and Marc Brown to come back and Mark Farren to join us in January, it’s exciting.”