Michael O'Connor: Glenavon want to begin 'mini-league' by earning positive result in Mid-Ulster derby

The two teams met at the end of February with Glenavon taking the derby spoils in a dominant 3-0 success at Mourneview Park.

They are set to do it all over again at the same venue as last Saturday’s original date had to be postponed due to international call-ups.

Glenavon know a positive result will see them leapfrog Crusaders from the foot of the table as the Hatchetmen are only a point ahead and having played a game more.

The Ports were last in action two weeks ago in a scoreless draw against lowly Crusaders, meaning you have to go back to February 21 for their last success in the Premiership.

When asked for his thoughts heading into another blood and thunder derby, O’Connor said: “With these games, the form, league places and everything else goes out the window.

"Ideally we want to repeat the same performance and result from the last time we played Portadown but it isn’t as easy as that.

"They’ve had one or two players recently returning from injury, including Gary Thompson who is a key player for them.

“I’m fully expecting a response from them as they drew with Crusaders last time out and the last derby will be fresh on their minds.

"However, it is down to us to get the three points and that’s what we’ll try and do.

"I said at the start of the split that’s a five game mini-league and we want to begin that with a good result.

"Obviously we know that Crusaders lost last weekend but we are honestly concentrating on ourselves.”

Nine points separates bottom-of-the-table Glenavon and tenth-placed Ballymena United as that spot would guarantee safety come next season.

But O’Connor knows guaranteeing safety by whatever means possible remains the priority for the Lurgan Blues.

He added: “I think out of the five remaining games that three wins would be enough to avoid automatic relegation but in football, you just never know.

"Of course, we want to win all five games but we will just concentrate on Portadown this Saturday, then it’ll be Ballymena United on Tuesday and so on.”

Paul McGovern and Luke McGerrigan were involved with Northern Ireland U19 squads in the last week and O’Connor was thankful that his teenage talents have returned from international duty unscathed.

"They should both be fresh and ready to go,” he stressed.

"I think they played certain parts of games but they didn’t play the full quantity of minutes.

“I remember people said when we brought Luke in that he was only 17-years-old and would never cope featuring in a relegation but he plays like a 25-year-old and brings a complete calmness to the midfield and can get goals.

"I’ve always lived by the motto that if you’re good enough, then you’re old enough and I’ll always stick a player in regardless of their age if they have quality to play in my team.”