Mixed week for Blues Reserves

Linfield’s reserve side proved to be formidable opponents as they continued their unbeaten run whilst spoiling that of Gerard McMahon’s side.

With the club’s first team conceding too many goals from set-pieces so far this season, it was a trait that, as McMahon tells, spilled over into his side for that game against Linfield:

“We probably played better against Linfield than we did against Newry but we conceded five goals from set-pieces. They’re a big physical side and they had some first team players playing.

“It was 2-2 after an hour but then our heads went down when they scored their fourth.”

However, the Blues soon bounced back from their first league defeat of the term and claimed a 3-0 victory over lowly Newry City, who have lost all eight of their IFA Reserve League matches so far this term.

The goals came from Mark Haughey, Ryan Murphy and Joe Finlay, who could have had even more but for the Newry goalkeeper.

“We should have won by a lot more and their keeper kept them in it,” told McMahon.

“He made three really, really good saves from Joe Finlay so it could have been a lot higher score.

“Our goalkeeper only had one shot to save from Adam Pedlow, who was with us last season. He was probably their best player on the day playing left-back. He’s a good big lad and he did rightly.

“We had Mark Haughey and Mark Turkington in from the first team. Turk played the whole match and Haughey had to be taken off after about an hour with a bit of tendonitis in his knee. It flares up every now and then and he probably could have played on but we weren’t taking any chances. They both did very well but they didn’t really have much to do.

“I thought all of our guys did well. Cameron Grieve put in a good shift on the left-wing but there was nobody really outstanding. If we had got our act together it could have been a lot more. I was happy with the result but I wasn’t happy with the performance.”

After the week’s games, Glenavon Reserves sit in second place in the IFA Reserve League table, just three points behind Linfield and will face Lisburn Distillery II at Mourneview Park on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 2pm).