Entertain fans says boss

The Blues make the trip to face newly promoted United (kick-off 8pm) and the manager wants his team to make it a worthwhile journey for supporters.

He is certainly confident in his side’s ability to do just that and claims that the current Blues squad is the best since the team that finished second in the league back in 2001.

“Maybe I’m biased but I think that it’s a different Glenavon team to the ones we’ve had in the past 10 years,” he said.

“I’m saying that as a fan. I’ve seen the teams in recent years and I think we now have the best team we’ve had since we finished second and got into Europe.

“When the fans give us their money and follow us away from home, we want to entertain them. People pay hard-earned cash to watch us and it’s not easy for them to part with their money.

“The quality of football we’re producing at the minute is good for people to watch. As a player, I like to score goals and entertain and I want my team to do that as well.

“If we can win 1-0 and win ugly, I’ll take that all day long but I’d prefer to play entertaining football.

“Even though we got beaten on Saturday, hopefully the fans will come back because they see that there is a big improvement. I’m bringing in a team of footballers.”

Whether it’s to win ugly or pretty, the Blues will have to be on form to get the better of Whitey Anderson’s Ballinamallard, who have had a fantastic start to life in the Danske Bank Premiership and are just three points off the top of the table.

“Full credit has to go to Whitey and his players for what they have done,” said Hamilton.

“It’s been incredible and some of the results they’ve got have been fantastic, beating Portadown at home and Cliftonville at Solitude.

“Ballinamallard players have come up with a winning mentality and it becomes a habit. They’ll always believe they can win, even if they go behind. They’ve got into the habit of not losing and until they go on a bad run, it’ll be hard to get them out of it.

“Friday’s game will be difficult for us because our guys are working on Friday then we have the long journey to make. It’s not ideal but we’ll prepare for it as best we can, get the boys up for it and if we play like we did against Linfield in the first half, there’s not a team in the league that can live with us.

“We’ve proved that against Linfield and Crusaders so hopefully we can put in that level of performance, commitment, desire and attitude on Friday.”