GLENTORAN manager Declan Devine believes that Larne have “set the bar” for others to follow as the sides prepare to meet in this evening’s Sports Direct Premiership tie at Inver Park.
The Glens head into the game following a commanding 2-0 win over Loughgall on Tuesday night, thanks to goals from Jay Donnelly and Daniel Amos, which ended a two-game losing streak as they pushed into third place in the table.
Larne enter proceedings having only managed a scoreless draw away at Glenavon – also on Tuesday – as they failed to follow up on an impressive win over Linfield at Windsor Park last Saturday.
Home fans will be hoping to see their side claim a first Inver Park victory of the season tonight as they languish in 10th position in the table.
Devine was frustrated with his side having to play a third game in six days when they make the journey east but expects no sympathy.
“You can’t be asked to do three games in six days, I know we are full time but the quality will be the main thing to take a hit,” he said.
“Both sets of teams too I must stress, Larne are in the same boat, so it becomes just about recovery. My gripe is that in two week’s time we will have played three games in six days on three occasions and that’s just madness.
“But there’s nothing to be done about it now, we have to dust ourselves down and get ready, go out and have a right go at it.
“I’m just sorry for the supporters who have a big financial ask to pay for three tickets in six days.”
Having looked on at Larne’s fantastic European run to qualify for the group stages of the Conference League, does Devine see an opportunity to take advantage of a team with potentially one eye on the continent in the coming days and weeks?
“We know that we are in for a very tough time on Friday night that’s for sure,” the former Glens’ keeper said.
“Larne are absolutely the benchmark at the minute. Double league champions and obviously doing something that has never been done before.
“Tiernan (Lynch), Kenny (Bruce) and all the boys deserve massive credit for what they have achieved, it’s an amazement achievement but we can just concentrate on ourselves,” he continued.
“We are a brand-new group trying to come together. We lost so many players during the summer, and when you look at our bench in the Loughgall game it was full of young players.
“So, we are not at the same place as Larne yet, that we have two full panels of players, but no doubt they will be looking forward to welcoming us on Friday night and we will absolutely be looking forward to going to meet the challenge head on,” he added.
Glentoran will be looking for a vast improvement from last season against the reigning champions when they went down to defeats in all four meetings.
They certainly have a squad with many talented individuals such as Dylan Connolly, the lightening-quick winger and former Larne favourite Fuad Sule, who appeared to have been instructed to be more of an attacking threat on Tuesday than he has previously been.
However, they need strikers David Fisher and Jay Donnelly scoring regularly again if they have ambition of battling it out for Gibson Cup come April.
