Gary Hamilton: Level of investment makes it even more difficult for teams like Glenavon and Ballymena United

​Hamilton watched on in disbelief as Ben Gallagher carved through his Lurgan Blues side directly from kick-off and they were the victims of their own downfall once again for the Swifts second when Stephen Teggart allowed Niall Owens to nip in and square the ball to Thomas Maguire.

Half-time substitute Owens used his pace again to get in behind the Glenavon defence for Matthew Lusty’s late strike.

"It’s really frustrating because we keep saying every week we can’t give teams goals and today it’s after 11 seconds from kick-off,” said Hamilton. "We concede a really poor (second) goal.

"Tags has been brilliant for us since he came in but he has held his hands up there and he knows himself.

"He tries to shield the ball out of play, the player is quicker than him, gets around him and it’s a goal and a really poor one on our behalf because Tags is on the ball – he just has to go back to the keeper or put it into the stands and get back into shape.

"He makes a poor decision and it ends up as a goal and that killed us.

"It’s hard for us because we are giving teams goals and they aren’t having to create good quality goals – we are giving them on a plate and that’s the frustrating thing on our behalf.”

Things went from bad to worse for Glenavon with Jamie McDonagh, who recently arrived on loan from Cliftonville, shown a straight red card for a challenge on Adam Glenny.

The result leaves Glenavon sitting 11th in the league table and Hamilton predicts it’ll be a tough campaign.

"It’s going to be hard this year,” he added. “It’s a difficult league.

"Look at Dungannon – we were offered (Thomas) Maguire but couldn’t afford him.

"They signed Bigi (Gael Bigirimana) so even teams like Dungannon are investing money into their team and it makes it difficult.

"When you’re offered a player and you can’t afford their wages it’s difficult because you can’t do anything about it.

"A lot of teams in the bottom-half have invested in their team.

"The investment Carrick have put in has been massive and it makes it even more difficult for teams like Ballymena and ourselves.

"All you can do is keep plugging away and keep working hard.”