James Singleton ready for ‘biggest test’ as Glentoran host Crusaders

The east Belfast side welcome free-flowing Crusaders to The Oval this evening as Stephen Baxter’s troops aim to maintain their perfect start to the season.

The Irish Cup holders put Newry City to the sword on Saturday as Ben Kennedy, Daniel Larmour and a brace from Adam Lecky eased the Crues to a 4-0 success.

That result means Crusaders have scored an incredible 17 goals from their opening four games – something which hasn’t gone unnoticed by Singleton.

Warren Feeney’s Glentoran were also victorious last weekend as they won 2-0 at lowly Ballymena United through strikes from Junior and Jay Donnelly.

Singleton said: “It will undoubtedly be our biggest test so far.

“Crusaders’ last three games has seen them win 2-0, 4-0 and a 9-0, so we know we will have to be at our best to register a clean sheet.

“To be fair, we have done well in that regards by keeping the back door shut bar the defeat to Larne where we conceded a few sloppy goals.

“Our home record has been decent recently but we’ve picked up more points this season so far on the road.

“We want to get back to winning ways at The Oval but we know Crusaders have a lot of firepower in their squad and Ben Kennedy, who is a mate of mine from Lisburn, has been in red-hot form and is one of the best players in the league.

“We need to take confidence from the win at Ballymena which could have been a much more difficult game had Johnny McMurray scored with a header that hit the crossbar.

“However, once we went ahead, there was more space for us to exploit as they pressed for an equaliser and we were thankful when Jay added the second.”

Singleton, who joined the Glens in June 2022 after spending nine years with Glenavon, admits he has been impressed with the club’s business during this summer’s transfer window as four new players have arrived through the gates.

“They have all been good signings as we needed to replace Terry Devlin and Conor McMenamin who moved on,” he added. “Fuad Sule and Daire O’Connor are ideal replacements and then you have Josh Kelly who was the Ballymena captain and Cammy Palmer who was at Linfield, so they are all good additions.

“We had been light at centre-back due to injuries so it was great to see Paddy McClean return and that gives us another quality option in there.”

The 28-year-old, who has played across the back four and in midfield so far this season, acknowledged that his versatility has helped him yield more minutes.

He continued: “I probably prefer playing in midfield but I spent the majority of my Irish League career playing left-back at Glenavon.

“I was moved into midfield during my last year at Glenavon and that’s when Glentoran made the move to sign me.

“As long as I’m playing, I don’t mind where it is.

“I have filled in at right-back, centre-back, left-back and in midfield during stages this season, so I know my versatility helps.”