Glenavon coach highlights importance of home form in pursuit to avoid Premiership relegation
Glenavon assistant manager Mark Ferguson has highlighted the importance of home form in the club’s pursuit to avoid Premiership relegation and wants to turn Mourneview Park into “a fortress” after winning their third consecutive match in Lurgan.
After consecutive home victories over Carrick Rangers and Glentoran, the Lurgan Blues defeated Ballymena United 3-1 on Saturday thanks to goals from Jack Malone, David McDaid and Peter Campbell.
Glenavon remain seven points adrift at the bottom with their nearest rivals Carrick still holding three matches in hand, but Michael O’Connor’s appointment has resulted in an upswing in results.
When former Northern Ireland international O’Connor was named as Paddy McLaughlin’s successor, Glenavon were coming off a run of 11 straight league defeats – the worst start to a top-flight campaign by any Irish League side in 60 years.
They’ve now won three of their last seven with all four defeats coming on the road to Dungannon Swifts, Coleraine, Crusaders and leaders Larne.
With another home match on the horizon next weekend against Bangor, Ferguson is hoping to use it as a platform to further improve their fortunes.
"It's three wins from three at home, our home form has been really good from we came in, scored seven goals in that time as well, so it's positive and we have to keep building,” he told the club’s media channel. “It's trying to get that back-to-back win now and there's no better opportunity than next week.
"Home form is going to be massive in keeping us up and that made a difference today.
"We want to try and get that back-to-back win. Our home form is going to be massive.
"We're going to try and build on what we have built on and try to use Mourneview as a fortress. Three out of three, why can't we make it four out of four and go and score more goals? It's something we're going to have to try and do.
"I'm from Bangor and before I came in I went to most of Bangor's home games at the start of the season, so I got to see a lot of them and know their strengths and weaknesses. Mick will do his due diligence this week on the training pitch and we'll get a game plan sorted."