Head to head with former team mate

It will be the first time the pair have gone head to head as managers, McCann having started his career on the sideline this summer as he took over the helm at Distillery.

Like Hamilton, McCann has seen his new side pick up just one Danske Bank Premiership victory so far this season and so points will be at a premium as the teams look to muster up some early season momentum.

Distillery looked to have kick started their season with a 2-1 win over Dungannon Swifts last Tuesday but a defeat to Coleraine on Saturday sent them crashing back to the foot of the league table.

Glenavon meanwhile are fresh off the back of a dominant victory over Crusaders, in which they should have bagged a more convincing score-line than the 1-0 win they actually secured.

Boss Hamilton is keen to add to that victory this weekend and is confident that another good display will lead to another three points at the expense of his ex-Glentoran pal.

“Tim’s a good lad and he’s in the same position as myself at the minute in that he wants to get points on the board,” he said.

“Hopefully, I’ll be the one with the last laugh but it’ll be a difficult game so we’ll just wait and see.

“We’ve put in two top quality performances on the bounce now but there’s no point doing that and then going down to Distillery and not doing it.

“If we put in those levels of commitment, effort and desire then the quality’s there to be seen by everybody. If we can match them for their work-rate and effort then there’s a good chance that we can get the three points but in Irish League football it always stems down to who wins the battle and who has the better attitude to start off with.

“If you go to places like Distillery and don’t have a good attitude then anybody can turn you over. Hopefully we can show the right attitude, which I’m confident we will because the boys have done it in every game so far this season. “Even in the matches against Dungannon and Donegal Celtic, the boys were still professional and it was unfortunate that we went down to 10 men and it made the task harder.

“We still stuck in, put in good performances and showed great levels of commitment.” Hamilton has kept the same line-up for his side’s last two league games and is all set to make it three on the bounce against Distillery. We can’t change a winning team that puts in good performances. We didn’t change the team from the game against Portadown and we won’t be changing it next week either.”