Looking for first league win

GLENAVON will be looking to pick up their first win of the current Danske Bank Premiership campaign on Friday evening as the Blues travel to face Donegal Celtic (kick-off 7.45 pm).
By The Newsroom
Published 31st Aug 2012, 09:12 BST

The Blues have picked up just one point from three games and have the crunch Mid-Ulster derby following just three days after their visit to DC.

Consequently, boss Gary Hamilton is keen to pick up some momentum by securing a much needed league victory at Donegal Celtic Park to add to his side’s 6-1 win over Sport & leisure in the Irn-Bru League Cup second round.

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“We want to get a good positive result against DC on Friday and take it into the Portadown match,” he said.

“Hopefully we can also bring some momentum from our win in the League Cup into Friday’s match and pick up some points. Positive results breed confidence.

“If we play to our capabilities, we can take points off anyone. If the boys can put in the same effort that they did against Dungannon, hopefully they can get the reward that they deserve for it on Friday.”

However, Hamilton also admits that this weekend’s games will be far from straight forward as his new squad is still in the process of gelling together.

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“Friday’s game won’t be easy but then there are no easy games in the league,” he said.

“We’ve seen already this season that anything can happen and especially at the start of the season. It will take teams a while to settle down and in the squad we put out to face Glentoran, 10 of our 16 were new players.

“Pre-season games aren’t competitive matches and the players can’t build that bond because you aren’t playing against top teams. Hopefully after 10 games, we’ll see our boys getting a good understanding and start to see what we’re doing coming to fruition.

“It’s like Arsene Wenger was saying at the weekend, people don’t click overnight, it can take seven or eight games. Oran Kearney said the same to me the other week. It takes time for people to bed in and settle down. Coleraine didn’t win any of their first six games last season and they finished fourth in the league.”

Kyle Neill will again be available for this game after completing his automatic one game ban in Monday’s Irn Bru League Cup win over Sport & Leisure.

Related topics:BluesGlenavonPremiershipDanske Bank