Mick McDermott still expects Glentoran to ‘be up there’

Even though the east Belfast giants have pocketed merely two points from their opening four Danske Bank Premiership games – which leaves them just three places off the bottom of the table - McDermott insists they can muscle their way back into title contention.

They still have some way to go if Saturday night’s offering against Larne is anything to go by.

Both teams huffed and puffed without finding the net.

Nevertheless, McDermott was full of smiles at the finish – and he warned that both Larne and Glentoran will be in the mix, four months down the line.

“Larne are going to be up there, no doubt about it – and we will be up there too,” said a determined McDermott. “We’ve had a difficult start, Cliftonville and Coleraine away and Larne at home.

“The disappointing result so far for me was the Glenavon one, which was one of those games we should have taken care of.

“Did we expect to have a couple of points?

“No, I expected more.

“But that’s where we are, there is no panic on our part, there is not even a concern.

“It doesn’t bother me in the slightest because I know what we’ve got.

“I know the quality we have – we will win games, no doubt in my mind.

“The way the league is, if you take care of the bottom six teams, then the big games take care of themselves.

“People may say we’re falling off the pace (of the title race) even at this early stage, but there is no panic on our part.”

The frustrating thing for McDermott was his team’s game management in the final third.

“My only disappointment was our decision-making at times,” he added. “We didn’t have the right execution.

“We had two good chances in the first half...Robbie McDaid went through, but overrun the ball and the keeper dug it out.

“Then we were in a position of four against two and Robbie just had to slip Jamie (McDonagh) in.

“But he took that extra touch that meant Jamie strayed offside.

“So, it was our decision-making that wasn’t right.”

“I can take a lot of positives out of our last two games...a clean sheet at Cliftonville and a clean sheet at home to Larne, who were previously scoring goals for fun.

“Larne are one of the best teams in the league in terms of possession.

“Was I happy with one point?

“No...but that’s the way it is.

“I would think that both sets of players will be as tired as all they have been all season.

“Our boys were shattered after the game – and I’m sure the Larne lads were the same.”

Larne boss Tiernan Lynch reckons his team is now a match for any side in the division.

“I suppose it says a lot about our club in terms of how far we have come that we are disappointed to leave a place like the Oval without three points,” he said. “There were a lot of disappointed faces in our dressing room.

“But we’ve got to build on what we’ve done.

“There is a lot of talk going on in the media and other outlets outside the club, it’s important we keep our heads down and keep working really hard to maintain our performance levels.

“We go into every game to win it.

“We’ve proved we can live with the big boys.

“We don’t fear any side.”

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