McDonnell Expresses Confidence in Glenavon Despite Recent Setbacks

Following their elimination from the BetMcLean League Cup on Tuesday, where they were defeated by Armagh City, Glenavon manager Stephen McDonnell stated that his team is “certainly doing good enough,” even after experiencing consecutive losses across all competitions. The Lurgan Blues’ disappointing departure from the BetMcLean League Cup, at the hands of Armagh City, came on the heels of a 3-0 loss to Loughgall in their most recent league match. Currently, they occupy 10th place in the standings, having secured only three victories in 15 games, prior to their Saturday encounter with Glentoran. Despite this, McDonnell appeared largely unconcerned. He remarked, “What’s done is done, but we also need to reflect in particular on the last two games, where we’ve dominated the football in terms of the chances created and we have missed some seriously easy opportunities to score goals.” McDonnell added, “In one way it’s a concern because we’re not putting the ball in the net, but on the other side of it, we’re creating multiple good opportunities, so that would suggest we’re certainly doing enough.” While acknowledging that the previous two matches represented a “major disappointment,” the manager expressed satisfaction with his team’s ongoing development. He further elaborated, “The reality is, we’re sitting on 15 points, which is nine points off second. There are four games in particular that we know we left points behind in, that we were extremely dominant in, and we picked up a draw.” “Four draws that we should’ve turned into four wins and those eight extra points means you’re two points off second. That’s how fine the margins are,” he continued. Discussing the upcoming weekend fixture against Glentoran, a team also eager to secure points, McDonnell conveyed that his squad would approach the game with confidence. He stated, “We drew 0-0 at The Oval in the reverse fixture and we should’ve taken all three points but, we take confidence from that.” McDonnell concluded, “I think we’re in a better place from when we had to go to the Oval. We’ll be going to take full points and if we can do that, the whole complexion of the league table changes once again.”