Declan Devine clear 'there will be twists and turns' in Premiership title race after Glentoran disappointment
Glentoran manager Declan Devine did his level best to camouflage his disappointment, but deep down knew Saturday’s 1-1 Premiership draw against rivals Linfield was a devastating blow to his team’s title hopes.
It’s now going to take a minor miracle if the East Belfast side are to end a 17-year wait by getting their hands on the Gibson Cup.
As ‘Big Two’ derbies go, this was a relatively low-key affair given the importance of the outcome – it really was a must-win game for Glentoran.
When Matt Yates shot the visitors into a first half lead with a delightful curling shot from the edge of the box, it was the blue half of the ground that went into raptures.
With the advantage of a strong wind at their backs after the restart, the Glens levelled on the hour through Aaron McEneff’s penalty after Daniel Larmour had been hauled down by a clumsy challenge from Isaac Baird.
McEneff took on the responsibility after Pat Hoban fluffed his lines seven days earlier against Coleraine – a result that also helped derail the Glens’ title challenge.
And, the agony continued. David Healy’s Linfield have become a thorn in the flesh of their cross-town rivals of late.
Not only did they nick a crucial league win at Windsor Park last month, but they also defeated the Glens in the BetMcLean Cup final.
This latest result at The Oval leaves Devine’s men trailing Larne by six points at the top of the table and, with only four games remaining, the champagne is on ice up at Inver Park.
Although Devine attempted to put a positive spin on his post-match analysis, his body language suggested otherwise.
“We must dust ourselves down, we’ll take a day or two to recover and rest up,” he said. “When we analyse the game, we’ll know we can do better.
“The bottom line is, we now need four wins, but with this group of players, it is possible. They are sore and hurt at the moment, we’ll take it one game at a time to see where it takes us.
“There will be a lot of twists and turns in these split games, make no mistake about that.”
Devine admitted his boys failed to reach the levels required.
He added: “We didn’t play well enough.
"We let the first half pass us by, even though we had a couple of good opportunities to score.
“We are disappointed with our levels, we know we weren’t as cohesive as we have been; we came off our own standards a little bit.
“It’s frustrating, but there are still a lot of points to play for. We know we can be better. Hopefully, we can show that in our next four games.
“This result leaves us in second place, two points above Coleraine and six behind Larne – the table speaks for itself.”
Linfield manager David Healy reckons a draw was the right result.
“We got the goal we wanted in the first half but failed to build on it,” he said. “It was a great finish from Matt, he used a Glentoran defender as a shield to help him curl the ball into the net.
“My concern about their goal was we had a player down injured inside the box, it just wasn’t a split second, he was down for seven or eight seconds.
“Normally, when you have a player down in and around a congested area, the referee would blow up. That was disappointing.”