Glentoran 'striving to get better every week' as James Singleton targets Larne challenge

By Patrick Van Dort
Published 24th Nov 2023, 11:00 BST
Glentoran captain James Singleton celebrates during the weekend win over Ballymena United, with Larne the next Sports Direct Premiership challenge. (Photo by Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker)Glentoran captain James Singleton celebrates during the weekend win over Ballymena United, with Larne the next Sports Direct Premiership challenge. (Photo by Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker)
Glentoran captain James Singleton celebrates during the weekend win over Ballymena United, with Larne the next Sports Direct Premiership challenge. (Photo by Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker)
James Singleton is refusing to rule out a Glentoran run of results as he aims to maintain momentum from a mini-revival tonight at high-flying Larne.

A struggle to match the level of squad quality on paper with consistent on-pitch rewards has left Warren Feeney’s side sitting 12 points off league leaders and main rivals Linfield having played an extra Sports Direct Premiership fixture.

A loss to Larne would leave the latter in top spot to kick off the weekend and the Glens searching, once again, for answers.

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However, a confidence-boosting five-goal return to winning ways last weekend by beating Ballymena United marked back-to-back blanks at the back and a first victory in five fixtures.

Singleton, who marked sporting the skipper’s armband with a welcome spot on the scoresheet against Ballymena, has belief in a Glentoran rise up the rankings.

"We’re striving to get better every week and we’re not going to stop here,” said Singleton following the Ballymena success. "People are writing us off already but it’s a long season and you can see over the last couple of weeks how tight Larne have got to Linfield, albeit they (Linfield) didn’t play (last weekend).

"Linfield looked like they were running away with it and now there’s only two points in it.

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"It just shows you how football can go – we play Linfield (December 1), we’ve Larne next.

"We’ve big games coming up and if we can pick up results then we’ll be right back in the mix.”

And the goalscorer put defensive gains over attacking glory in the Ballymena win.

"We’re more delighted with the clean sheet again as that’s now two in a row,” he said. "That was the incentive, to keep another clean sheet and take any chances that come our way.

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"It’s nice to chip in...it was great to get a few different people on the scoresheet.

"The form probably hasn’t been the best but our last few performances haven’t been too bad.

"Even Linfield here in the cup (when) I thought we had our own chances but maybe didn’t take again.

"So we’re just happy to get two clean sheets now and three points (today) on the board and need to carry that (into Larne)."

Related topics:LarneLinfieldGlentoranPeopleBallymena