Michael O'Connor fears key Glenavon player 'might have broken jaw' after early exit
Michael O’Connor insists his Glenavon squad have to keep believing they can preserve their Premiership status following Saturday’s 5-2 defeat against Cliftonville.
Jack Keaney’s brace alongside goals from Eric McWoods, Joe Sheridan and Jonny Addis helped extend the Reds’ unbeaten league run to seven.
Glenavon went ahead at a stage in the first half as Jack Malone’s delightful lob and a sensational Bridel Bosakani volley briefly cancelled out McWoods’ third-minute strike.
The hosts were reduced to 10 men following Odhran Casey’s dismissal, but the Lurgan Blues couldn’t make their advantage count.
There was a major early blow for O’Connor when goalkeeper Mark Byrne was forced off after only three minutes with 17-year-old Sean Hamill making his Premiership debut.
Here’s what the Glenavon manager had to say after the match:
THOUGHTS ON THAT?
"If we look at the goals, we can see that teams aren't having to work hard to score against us.
"The four goals are defendable. The first one is one straight pass, defenders don't see it, he runs behind.
"We've shown it to them this week...McWoods will run behind all the time. For the second goal, (Keevan) Hawthorne comes inside and there's no-one trying to tackle him...it's too easy. Then Jonny Addis runs 35 yards and no contact on him. Too easy.
"The fourth one's from a corner. We've warned them this week that at corners they can do something off the cuff.”
FRUSTRATING TO FALL BEHIND SO EARLY ON?
"It's schoolboy defending. I think most of the goals we concede are preventable. I don't know what else I can say.
"You learn the basics of defending when you're 12, 13, your body shape, when to drop, when to go in – we're just not doing it at the minute.
"We're conceding soft, soft goals. Then the other side, we've got no centre-forwards. Playing against 10 men in the second half, we didn't look like hurting them.
"It’s a frustrating afternoon. When they went down to 10 men, I thought ‘we'll have a chance here’, 3-2 down, we'll have a go at them. But we didn't lay a finger on them.”
HOW IS MARK AFTER GOING OFF EARLY ON?
"He's in hospital now. The physio thinks it might be a broken jaw, so we'll be without a keeper for a while.”
SEAN MADE SOME GOOD SAVES – ONE MISTAKE FOR THE SECOND GOAL BUT HOW DID YOU FEEL HE GOT ON?
"He's a young lad, this is where we are at the minute.
"Jacob's (Carney) not far away, but Sean is brilliant.
"He's a young lad, he's learning his trade, his attitude's bang on and he's actually done alright today.
“Apart from that save where he should have got front post, and he knows that himself, I thought his kicking, handling and his starting position to come out was really good.”
ANY CHANCE OF JACOB CARNEY BEING BACK NEXT WEEKEND?
"I don't know. I think we might have to look at it.
"I would say he was a couple of weeks away from coming back, so we'll see how he is. We might have to push it.”
HAVE TO KEEP BELIEVING YOU CAN STAY UP?
"I told the boys, you can't give in.
"Once your head drops and you give in, then you have no chance. So you have to keep going and keep working hard and keep believing we can stay up.”
STRIKER THE PRIORITY NOW AHEAD OF JANUARY?
“Yeah, we'll need two strikers in.
"We've got Bridel, who's more of a ten. We had Paul McGovern as a nine last week, who's a left winger or a right winger.
"We'll try and get a couple of forwards in, try and get more attacking players in. We've still got players to come back. Kris Lowe has been out most of the season, Stephen Mallon has been out most of the season.
"Sean Carlin had an operation not that long ago, he's out for another four or five weeks.
"So you look at our injured list...if you had all the players fit and available, we wouldn't be where we are, but that's football. We have to get on with it.”