Time to end barren spell

The Blues are ahead of Dungannon Swifts on goal difference and Hamilton wants to ensure the Stangmore Park side don’t overtake his team.

The Swifts host Donegal Celtic with a real chance of a win and so Hamilton knows his Blues may well need a victory to remain in ninth place.

The reward would be a trio of consecutive home games against Dungannon, Portadown and Donegal Celtic to begin the post-split fixtures.

“We got a good result up at Coleraine so hopefully we can get another one of those this weekend,” said Hamilton.

“It would be good to go into the split with a win that puts us into ninth place. It would be great because every win gives people confidence and staying above Dungannon would get us three straight home games after the split. That would be an ideal situation and what we are aiming for.”

Coleraine are in somewhat inconsistent form with five wins, four defeats and one draw in their last 10 games. Hamilton’s side, however, have lost 10 of their last 12 matches and he knows his team must perform if they’re to get a much needed three points on Saturday.

He said: “It’ll be another tough one. Coleraine are a bit like ourselves in that they can beat anybody on their day or get beaten by anybody on another day.

“Oran Kearney has done well to get them into the top six. They have quality throughout their side and they can punish any team if they’re on form.

“If we get a performance like the one we put in against Cliftonville, I think we could trouble anyone other than Cliftonville. If we can work hard, keep our discipline and do what we can do, we can trouble their keeper.”

Their poor run has meant Glenavon now sit just six points above Donegal Celtic, who occupy 11th spot, although DC could be docked three points if it is found they fielded an ineligible player last weekend. Regardless of Donegal Celtic’s points situation, Hamilton is confident his side won’t be anywhere near the promotion/relegation play-off place after the final six matches.

He said: “I think we’ve got more than enough to deal with other teams. If we concentrate on our own performance, I think we’ve got enough. We’ve had three tough games lately against Glentoran, Portadown and Cliftonville and I’m confident that the boys will deliver the points that we need to keep us safe.

“We’ve said from day one that we want to be nowhere near relegation come the end of the season and hopefully we won’t be anywhere near the play-off spot.

“We have quality in our side and I think we have more than enough to keep ourselves away from DC.”

In order to help their cause with a win this weekend, the boss is going to go with a more attacking line-up than the one that took on Cliftonville last week.

He said: “There will have to be a change somewhere because we played with a 5-4-1 formation to try and stop Cliftonville and that will change this week. We’ll have a look at it and probably go back to Farren and Bates up front.”