First ‘split’ match on Tuesday

The Blues travel to Stangmore Park for their first post-split fixture next week (kick-off 2.30pm), looking to reel in the Swifts and move up to ninth spot. Whether they have the chance to do that with a win will depend on how Saturday’s results go before this match.

Regardless of whether Glenavon go into this game level with Dungannon or six points behind, Hamilton is confident of avoiding a repeat of January’s defeat at Stangmore and picking up a victory.

“If we put in the sort of performance we did in that game then we will get the win this time,” he said.

That was the second time Dungannon have beaten Glenavon this season, also recording a 1-0 win at Mourneview Park way back in August. Hamilton isn’t asking for an increase in performance from either of those matches.

“The performances have been good, it’s just the results that have been lacking,” he said.

“If we put in performances like that, we’ll get results nine times out of ten. There will be the odd result that goes against you but you’ll get your fair results.

“We had a man sent off after about 20 minutes when they beat us at Mourneview and still should have got something out of the game. Then the last time we went up there, we had a few chances in the first half and we could have had the game out of sight. We didn’t take those chances and they punished us. We fully deserved to get something out of that game.

“Depending on results on Saturday, they could potentially be six points ahead of us going into this one, which we don’t want. It’s a big one for us because we want to get above them. If we go into the game with the right attitude and put in a good performance then we’ve got a chance.

“Hopefully we can go up and get a positive result. It’s a place where we always seem to play well so hopefully we’ll take our chances this time.”

Following that match, Glenavon host two home games after a break for the Irish Cup semi-finals with basement side Distillery visiting Mourneview Park on Saturday 13th April, followed by either Ballinamallard or Portadown, depending on which side is in the bottom six, the following Tuesday evening.

Glenavon then travel to take on Ballymena on Saturday 20th April before returning to, barring a play-off, conclude the league season at home to Donegal Celtic a week later.