We can't get 'carried away', insists Glentoran boss Rodney McAree

In the other corner, the Sky Blues are without a win in their last five Danske Bank Premiership contests and were beaten 1-0 by Carrick Rangers through the week.

McAree, who has been unbeaten in his six games in charge at The Oval to date, stressed that the win against Linfield will count for nothing if they don’t back it up with another victory on Warden Street this evening.

"I thought we were very, very good against Linfield,” said the ex-Coleraine boss.

"I thought the players across the field and those who came on as sub all carried out their responsibilities to the letter of the law.

"We put in a hell of a shift and we knew it was going to take that as Linfield arrived here in good form.

"We started slow the last two times we've played Linfield here so we wanted to make sure we quick out the blocks on this occasion.

“We can't get carried away as we go to Ballymena and it's a quick turn around from Tuesday night to Friday night.

"We have to go there and get a positive result because if we don't, then the win against Linfield is irrelevant.

"It was only three points against Linfield but it's the game you want to win.”

Glentoran remained 6th in the Premiership standings despite the eye catching win against David Healy’s side in east Belfast.

However, the Glens have two games in hand on leaders Larne as they aim to bridge the gap in the coming weeks and months.

"It's cliche and stuff like that but we will only look ahead to the game tonight,” McAree stressed.

"The games in hand as I've said since I started mean nothing unless we win the games we are involved in.

"We have to win tonight and the games in hand will come around and we have to see where we are at that moment in time.

"We're in a good run of form in the league, we're in the quarter-final of the Irish Cup, so we've given ourselves a couple of chances to do well.

"That's all it is at the moment, we're in the same position in the league and we haven't passed anyone yet.

"Whatever job you're in, you have to be happy doing what you're doing and I don't want to make things boring for people, so we are all happy at the moment.”

McAree was pleased with the impact made by Northern Ireland international Conor McMenamin on Tuesday night as the winger made his first start after injury.

"That was Conor's first start and we had it in our minds we wanted him back for the Linfield game,” he continued.

"He breezed through the 90 minutes and he said he was fine and he could have got a couple of goals.

"It's great to have him back, he's great for the league and it's great to see him playing with a smile on his face.”