'A really positive night' for Glentoran but title race will still have plenty of 'twists and turns', says Declan Devine
Glentoran manager Declan Devine outlined the “resilience” of his team after they cut the gap at the top of the Premiership table.
Glentoran moved two points behind leaders Larne after a comfortable 4-0 victory at Bangor on Tuesday night.
The visitors took the lead on 19 minutes when Jack Malone’s cross was headed goalwards by Cammy Palmer, with Ross Clarke in the right place at the right time to convert.
Soon after, Clarke bagged his second of the evening when he latched onto James Singleton’s cross into the area to convert.
Bangor were largely second best throughout the 90 minutes and fell further behind after the restart as Singleton arrowed into the bottom corner, with the scoring then being completed late on as Pat Hoban seized upon a defensive mistake to lob home.
When asked to sum-up his post-match thoughts, Devine told Glentoran TV: "Full credit to the players because we were hurting after the weekend.
"Really difficult venue, really difficult conditions...I thought we were a wee bit erratic in the second half.
"We gave up a couple of opportunities which I was disappointed with, but listen, this group of players are really resilient.
"We have to dust that one off and look forward to Sunday.
"It has always been about moving onto the next game and our talk earlier tonight was about how many Glentoran fans came here again on a really bad night and they got on behind us from the first whistle to the last.
"We got a lot of boys' minutes, four goals away from home, clean sheet...a really positive night.”
Glentoran now face city rivals Linfield on Sunday as the BetMcLean Cup is up for grabs.
After that, they will be looking to land the Gibson Cup for the first time since 2008-09 after closing the gap on the Inver Reds.
As the campaign reaches its climax, Devine is expecting plenty of excitement but knows having home advantage for potentially five out of their last seven Premiership games could be key.
"There's still much to play for and there will be twists and turns to come our way,” he added.
"A month ago I think we were 13 points behind, really disappointed we had conceded a late penalty up at Larne in stoppage-time, but it's credit to the players to have that swing in points over a four week period.
"There's no pats on the back, we still have a huge amount of work to do. There's seven huge league games to come and I think potentially five of them are at home.
"We need to make The Oval a place where no one wants to come and play.
"It's a really busy period, the guys are going to get a few days off and then we will prepare for the BetMcLean Cup final.”
Bangor are now winless in their last eight Premiership games and after contending for a top-six spot, Lee Feeney’s men now find themselves ninth in the league table.
They are not in action again until Saturday, March 21 when they have their last pre-split game away at Dungannon Swifts.