Barry Gray keeping calm after Warrenpoint Town’s bright start

A midweek draw away to Glentoran provided Warrenpoint with another memorable result in the aftermath of last month beating Linfield for the first time in the former Mid-Ulster League club’s history.

Impressive displays against other high-profile sides such as Larne and Coleraine have helped Gray’s squad climb to sixth - a position above weekend rivals Glenavon they can protect by avoiding defeat today at Milltown.

Despite the impressive opening run of form, Gray remains measured.

“Glenavon is another tough game,” said Gray. “I watched Glenavon in midweek against Cliftonville.

“They are much better than their league position suggests.

“They have been really unfortunate in certain games this season, things have gone against them.

“It’s going to be a really difficult 90 minutes.

“They key thing was to get the Glentoran game out of the way, with no knock or injuries that will affect team selection for Saturday.

“At least we are at home, that’s the best I can say.

“The way the league is, there is nothing easy.

“My consolation is we have competed well against the so-called bigger clubs, bigger teams – I can’t say the top teams because some of them aren’t at the top at this moment in time.

“We have done well, but we are only nine or 10 games, so we’ll not becoming carried away.

“We were structured, we were organised, we were well set-up (against Glentoran), we had a plan we stuck to as best as we could.

“Colm Deasy was really good at full-back, Luke Gallagher played at centre-back, it was his first game in six weeks because of injury...Andy Coleman went into goals for his first game of the season, so we had lots of pluses.

“We are not getting carried away - it was a decent point and a clean sheet.

“Any team coming to the Oval will be happy to leave with anything, so we are no different.”

Glenavon should visit Warrenpoint bolstered by the progress from injury of former Northern Ireland international Sammy Clingan.

“Sammy had a problem with his calf at the start of the season, however, he has been through rehab, we have been keeping an eye on him over the last five or six weeks and we’re now in a position to sign him,” said Glenavon boss Gary Hamilton on the club website. “Anyone who follows Glenavon knows Sammy’s quality and what he brings to the club.”