Glentoran march into Co Antrim Shield semi-finals thanks to Jay Donnelly and Jordan Jenkins
Glentoran boss Declan Devine is closing in on his first trophy since moving into the hot-seat late last season.
The former Derry City boss couldn’t hide his delight after watching his team book their place in the semi-finals of the Toals.com Co Antrim Shield after snuffing out the challenge of a dogged Carrick Rangers at the BetMcLean Oval.
Goals from Jay Donnelly and Jordan Jenkins in a 2-0 win ensured the smile would remain on the face of Devine, who guided his boys to a memorable ‘Big Two’ win over bitter rivals Linfield at Windsor Park on Friday night.
Perhaps his team didn’t reach the same levels of performance in terms of power and passion but they were still too slick for a Carrick side who will now come under the management of Stephen Baxter ahead of the weekend’s Premiership programme. He succeeds Stuart King, who left the post last week following a string of defeats, with players Mark Surgenor and Curtis Allen in charge for a second game as the interim Carrick team.
Donnelly missed a glorious chance to shoot the Glens into the lead after only seven minutes. He was sent into the box by a brilliant pass from Finley Thorndike but, with goalkeeper Ross Glendinning charging off his line, the striker could only shoot wide.
Carrick hit back with Nedas Maciulaitis showing great skill before releasing Kyle Cherry, who decided to try his luck from 30 yards only to see goalkeeper Andrew Mills get down to smartly save.
The impressive Thorndike turned provider once again on 13 minutes. This time he picked out the long-striding David Fisher, but Glendinning got down brilliantly to save.
It was perhaps no surprise when Glentoran broke the deadlock on 20 minutes.
For once, the Carrick defence were caught napping and, when Daniel Amos somehow cut the ball back from a narrow angle, the striker lashed the ball into the roof of the net.
Carrick, neat and tidy on the ball, had the chance to level just on the half-hour but, 20 yards from goal, Cherry could only blast his free-kick effort into the Glentoran defensive wall.
The Glens carved out another decent opportunity just before half-time when Thorndike found James Singleton on the right channel and, when he pulled the trigger, defender Ben-Buchanan-Rolleston came in with a goal-saving block.
On the restart, Glens defender Amos was left holding his head in frustration after seeing his 25-yard blockbuster fizz just over the top.
But the home team had a scare on 50 minutes. Maciulaitis won a race for possession with goalkeeper Mills and when he drilled in a low cross skipper Marcus Kane was there to tidy up, with Danny Gibson ready to pounce.
Amos was right out of luck again with a replica effort from distance that Glendinning was again relieved to see inch over the crossbar.
But Jenkins ended the game as a contest when he romped through the middle, twisting and turning, before drilling the ball low and hard past Glendinning.