William aims to topple former club Linfield

The 39 year-old will again pull on the blue shirt, put on the captain’s armband and lead his team out onto the Windsor Park pitch, but this time it’ll all be for Glenavon.

“It’ll be a big change going back as a visiting player considering how long I spent there,” said Murphy, who made 639 appearances for the Belfast side.

“We obviously played them a while ago at Mourneview and I got a great reception from all the Linfield players, management team and supporters. They even gave me a standing ovation at the end of the game.

“It might be emotional going back to Windsor but when it turns 3pm, everything goes out the window. It’s a game I’m relishing and I’ll be doing everything I can to put one over on Linfield.

“It’s just my will to win and to do my best for Glenavon to try and win the game.”

Linfield are currently eight points above Glenavon in top spot but have lost their last two outings, 10-9 on penalties to Crusaders in the League Cup and 1-0 to Dungannon Swifts.

Murphy knows all too well what reaction that usually brings from a Linfield side.

“There’s plenty of motivation for the Linfield players to bounce back from those defeats,” he said.

“Big Davey (Jeffrey) will have them well drilled and they’ll be thinking there’s a few ex-Linfield players in myself, Kris Lindsay and Conor Hagan coming back with a point to prove.

“They’ll be well fired up after losing their last two. They won’t be taking this one bit lightly. They’ll have seen Dungannon as a team they should be beating but they’ll be thinking that about us, on paper, too.”

Glenavon have drawn their last two league outings, both against top six opposition. Murphy believes they could get another good result this weekend.

He said: “ Linfield are top of the league for a reason but people will have thought we had no chance going to the Oval. We got a good point there and could have nicked the game.

“Gary Hamilton will have us well fired up and focused. Who knows what could happen?”

The first task of the day for Murphy though, will be finding the right dressing room:

“I’ll just have to be careful about not going into the home one,” he said. “I’ll travel to the game with David Rainey so at least I’ll have him to keep me right and make sure I walk on past.”