Glentoran welcome back "best player in the league" Conor McMenamin

A broken metatarsal has kept talisman McMenamin out of action since November 20 but the Northern Ireland international was reintroduced off the bench for a 30 minute cameo at Shamrock Park on Saturday.

The 27-year-old starred as Glentoran kicked their season off in style, scoring nine goals in 14 league games, including braces against Larne and Dungannon before suffering his injury.

After McMenamin was forced off against Cliftonville, the Glens lost five of their next six league games and were also eliminated from the Irish League Cup by Linfield.

It’s all change now under Rodney McAree, who has won each of his four matches in charge to date while watching his men score 14 goals in the process.

"We were seeing how the game goes and if we can get Conor on then we will get him on,” assistant manager Tim McCann told Glens TV.

"You have to be careful not to rush him back but he was happy to come on and get the 30 minutes and I thought he showed glimpses of why he's the best player in the league."

Jay Donnelly’s brace and a wonder strike from Niall McGinn helped Glentoran set up a mouth-watering quarter-final clash against defending champions Crusaders.

McCann says they are looking to get the ball to their “danger men” as quickly as possible and are reaping the rewards of that strategy.

"We're just trying to get the players playing on the front foot,” he added.

"As soon as they receive the ball their first thought is can we play a pass forward and how can we get at them?

"We have some of the best players in the league in our forward positions so let's get the ball to them and play in the opposition half as much as we can.

"The boys have been doing that and getting the ball into our danger men. When it goes to our danger men, we're causing problems.

"Jay has scored four goals today - two of them disallowed - and he's disappointed he didn't score more. Niall's goal was fantastic and it's pleasing as well to get ‘Mac Attack’ back.

"He came off the bench and got a great applause from the fans. It was good to get Junior (Ogedi-Uzokwe) on too."

Not only have they been more lethal in attack, but The Oval outfit have also kept three consecutive clean sheets in all competitions.

"The main thing is clean sheets,” said McCann.

"If we keep clean sheets, we will win games because we have the firepower in the team to score goals.

"We're creating more and more chances. The boys are working really hard in training, they have a really good camaraderie, they are playing with a smile on their face and all we can do is take each game as it comes."