Double blow for Gary Hamilton’s Glenavon

On an afternoon which featured a first-half penalty miss by Glenavon, manager Gary Hamilton singled out two major calls by the match officials as decisive in his side’s derby draw with Dungannon Swifts.
Glenavon boss Gary Hamilton. Pic by Pacemaker.Glenavon boss Gary Hamilton. Pic by Pacemaker.
Glenavon boss Gary Hamilton. Pic by Pacemaker.

Conor McCloskey fired over the crossbar on 20 minutes from a penalty kick awarded to the Lurgan Blues after Swifts goalkeeper Sam Johnston was adjudged to have fouled Glenavon striker Danny Purkis.

However, two other incidents involving Purkis and Johnston commanded the focus of Hamilton’s attention - with the home forward having a goal ruled out for a foul on the goalkeeper and another penalty call between the players resulting in a goal kick by referee Steven Gregg.

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“The referee thought he didn’t touch him (for the second penalty shout), he decided not to book Danny either,” said Hamilton. “At half-time we watched the highlights and for the goal that’s disallowed, if anything, it’s their player who makes contact with the goalkeeper and Danny stands his ground.

“We defended well, probably could have done better in the final third but I think, following the penalty miss, we started to panic a little bit in those positions.

“We had the disallowed goal then came out and were in control again over the second half before what we feel is a stonewall penalty turned down.

“Any centre-forward is not going to go down in that situation, they want goals, they want bonuses...I’m a centre-forward and it’s built into us to score.

“It’s two calls for me.

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“For the penalty, there’s potential we could miss it as we missed the other one.

“But for the goal, for me, it’s simple that it should stand.”

On an afternoon of talking points, Hamilton refused to dwell on McCloskey’s penalty miss.

“Our two penalty takers, Mick (O’Connor) and Conan (Byrne), weren’t on the pitch and recently in the Mid-Ulster Cup we had Conor and JJ (Jenkins) both score, so it was between the two,” said Hamilton. “Conor had started the game really well the first 15 or 20 minutes and was looking really confident, plus after scoring one the other week you are expecting him to do the same again today.

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“He went for power and it went over the crossbar but the best players in the world miss penalties.

“But once we missed the penalty it did affect us as a team for a period leading up to half-time when we then had the disallowed goal.

“On the whole we defended okay, with Kris Lowe’s chance the only one for Dungannon.

“Without being unbelievable we controlled the game and created the better opportunities.

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“The positive is the clean sheet but we are disappointed and hurting.”

GLENAVON: Tuffey, Larmour, Coates, Birney, Jenkins (O’Connor, 64), Purkis, Snoddy (O’Mahony, 77), McCloskey (Fitzpatrick, 64), Singleton, Garrett, Ward.

Subs (not used): Byrne, Hall, Taylor, Rea.

DUNGANNON SWIFTS: Johnston, Coyle, Teggart, King, Byers, Lowe, Hughes (Campbell, 79), Smyth, Forde, Carvill (McGinty, 65), O’Kane (Convie, 65).

Subs (not used): Byrne, Gallagher, Brennan, Glenny.

Referee: Steven Gregg.

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