Gary Hamilton’s pride as ‘complete’ display sets Glenavon standard

Hamilton described Saturday’s Oval fightback to leave Belfast with a share of the spoils despite nine men against a side tipped to challenge for the Irish League title as “close to the best” since stepping into the Lurgan Blues hot-seat in December 2011.

Calum Birney’s equaliser arrived moments after Glentoran broke the deadlock against a Glenavon side forced to adjust to red cards for both Andrew Doyle and Peter Campbell.

“It was the most complete team performance in my time as boss and close to the best over those nine years at Glenavon,” said Hamilton. “Coming off the back of the derby loss to Portadown, we worked hard on certain areas and defended tremendously against Glentoran, then moved the ball quickly during the periods we had going forward under the circumstances.

“It was an excellent response to the Portadown performance and it was so encouraging to see a display like that with the odds stacked against us with nine men at the Oval.

“We now face Dungannon Swifts knowing they always make it tough for us but the players have set the standard now in terms of attitude, mentality and everything you want to see as a manager, with players backing each other up across the pitch.

“Now the players can draw confidence from that Glentoran performance but must take it forward.”

Former Glenavon coach Kris Lindsay returns to Mourneview Park as Dungannon boss now aiming to get his Swifts side back on track following back-to-back defeats.

“I was disappointed in the defending from both goals, it’s something we need to learn from and will be working on,” Swifts boss Kris Lindsay told media in the aftermath of the weekend loss to Warrenpoint Town. “We had our own chances, in the first half especially.

“It’s disappointing, we’ve said all along we need to pick up points against the teams who are going to be around us in the league.

“It’s frustrating but it’s the second game of the season with 36 still to go, so let’s not get too downhearted, we need to pick ourselves up.”

--

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world.

But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you