Michael O'Connor: Reinforcements in January will be a certainty in our bid to remain in the Premiership

The Lurgan Blues failed to close the gap on the teams above them in the standings after they were beaten by Crusaders at Seaview.

Despite a bright start, they were punished for two lapses in concentration within a matter of minutes in the first-half as Fraser Bryden twice profited from an inviting position.

Bryden then added two further strikes after the break to make four for the afternoon – which was sandwiched between Kyle McClelland pulling a goal back for O’Connor’s men.

10 points now separate bottom-placed Glenavon and Portadown above them in the table, and with that in mind, O’Connor has his eyes set on bringing in reinforcements in their bid to preserve their Premiership status.

"Yeah – players will come in,” he confessed.

"As you can see we're bottom of the league mid-November, so we need to bring more quality in.

"We need to bring players in that's going to help the squad. It's going to be a big January window for us.

"But yeah, we'll definitely bring players in. Players will be moving on as well. You'd think if they're not playing, there's going to be changes in January.

“We’re trying to keep the club in the league.”

O’Connor bemoaned how the defeat at Seaview was the result of a lack of conviction in both boxes as their loose final pass at one end was compounded with defensive mistakes at the other.

"Yeah, listen we were warned about Bryden,” he continued. “You look at his stats this year...he’s scored 9 in what was it, 12 or 13 games.

"We knew he was going to be dangerous when he makes those late runs into midfield – we just didn't pick them up.

"I think three of the four goals were our mistakes when the ball was high in the pitch. We knew they would be a transition team, which when they win the ball, they’ll look to play forward and run forward.

"I'd say that’s how first two goals sort of happened, the third goal as well.

"But yeah, I think for 65, 70 minutes of the game I thought we were good. There were just the wee moments where we didn't create, we were getting good positions but we didn't create a chance.

"I thought the game was lost today in both boxes for us.

"I thought defensively we didn't stop the ball coming into our box, and then the other end, we didn't create enough."

Glenavon did look threatening in the wide areas of the pitch and O’Connor says they will hope to build on that for the challenges ahead as they take on Larne away from home on Friday.

He acknowledged: “I thought both Peter (Campbell) and Corey (Smith) did well.

"As I said to the boys after...we sort of killed ourselves today. They didn't have to work hard for their goals.

"We just need to be better and our quality in the final third.

"A couple of times where Bridel’s got himself into good positions and it’s that final pass where he's kicked it out or he’s passed it to them."