Former Glentoran star Shane McCabe is confident Conor McMenamin “will deliver the goods” as the Northern Ireland international prepares for a return to The Oval in Saturday’s Premiership clash against Bangor.

McMenamin lit up the Irish League during his last stint at the Glens – he scored 33 goals in 66 league appearances across two full seasons to earn a move to Scottish top-flight side St Mirren, where he won a League Cup crown.

The 31-year-old initially returned to Northern Ireland with Coleraine earlier this summer before joining the Glens just 70 days later and started in last Friday’s 2-1 defeat to reigning champions Larne.

McMenamin hasn’t ran out at The Oval since helping the Glens seal their European return with a play-off win over Cliftonville in May 2023, but retained the affection of the club’s supporters even after leaving for Scotland.

placeholder image — Glentoran’s Conor McMenamin (right) will return to The Oval on Saturday. (Photo by INPHO/Jonathan Porter)

He will be tasked with helping Declan Devine’s side transform their Premiership fortunes with the East Belfast club losing three of their opening five matches.

McMenamin has spoken openly about his desire to add a Gibson Cup to his trophy collection and McCabe, who was part of the last Glentoran squad to celebrate league title glory in 2009, is excited by the prospect of the winger’s return.

"Conor McMenamin coming back will really boost Glentoran,” said McCabe. “There's probably a lot of pressure on him to turn this run around because they need some sort of spark.

"He's a marquee player and he has unbelievable ability, he proved that and got his move across the water to the professional set-up.

"He knows Glentoran, Glentoran know Conor, he feels comfortable at the club.

"There comes a lot of pressure (with his return), but I have no doubt that Conor McMenamin will deliver the goods.

"From an attacking point of view, you have Conor, Pat Hoban, Aaron McEneff, there is creativity all over the place and some really, really powerful attacking threats, but they just need to shore things up...they’re conceding too many goals.”

Glentoran already have ground to make up on the likes of Coleraine and ‘Big Two’ rivals Linfield at this early stage of the season having suffered losses to the Blues, Crusaders and Larne.

Across their three title-winning campaigns, Larne lost just five matches twice and were beaten only two times during the 2023/24 campaign.

Linfield haven’t lost more than eight matches in David Healy's six triumphs (three contained five or less) while Crusaders lost just three games in both 2015/16 and 2017/18.

"There's not much room for many more losses or dropping points,” added McCabe on Glentoran’s current run. “When you see the squad that Coleraine have assembled, it's fantastic.

"You see that Larne are still going to be there or thereabouts...with the European games they have only played three matches, but they're unbeaten.

"You'd probably see Linfield getting a wee run together and obviously Coleraine would be on everyone's lips.

"As much as you hate putting managers under more pressure, Decky know himself what the requirements are – you can't continue to lose games.”