Glentoran boss Mick McDermott insists three points tonight against Carrick Rangers will help the club celebrate its 140th birthday in style at the BetMcLean Oval.
Club owner Ali Pour has flown in for the occasion, and also launch the ‘140 Club’, a body set up to help those in need within in the community during this time of financial hardship and cost of living crisis.
Pour said: “While I can’t guarantee results on the pitch, I can promise we will help as many families possible in these hard times.”
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It will be up to McDermott to get it right on the pitch, but he insists his team must be at their best if they are to maintain their unbeaten start to the Danske Bank Premiership campaign when Stuart King’s Carrick visit East Belfast.
“Hopefully, it will be another special night under the lights at the Oval,” added McDermott. “The club have a number of things planned to mark the 140th anniversary, but we must do the business on the pitch.
“Although Carrick were well beaten (by Cliftonville) in the League Cup in midweek, they’ll be coming with plenty of confidence because they’ve already taken the scalps of Linfield and Crusaders.
“We had a good win (6-0) win over Warrenpoint Town in midweek, so it’s important to keep the momentum going. We also have a hunger not to concede.
"When Warrenpoint did hit us on the counterattack, the boys were throwing bodies in front of the ball . . . they didn’t want to concede.”
Meanwhile, manager Stephen Baxter is demanding a response from Crusaders when the make the short trip up the road for a north Belfast derby showdown against Cliftonville a Solitude.
The Shore Road boys crashed to only their second defeat of the League campaign (4-3) against Carrick last time out.
“If you defend like we did you can't expect to win football games,” said Baxter. “This will be another big test against a form team, so we can’t afford another off night.”
Elsewhere, Tiernan Lynch’s Larne have an early chance to shrug off the shock midweek League Cup defeat by Annagh United when they entertain Newry City at Inver Park.
“We’ll take the Annagh defeat fairly on the chin,” said Lynch. “I’m not into making excuses, I was disappointed with our showing on the night.
“We made nine chances to the team, so it’s a matter of drawing the line under that result and make sure we take three points against Newry.”
Friday night Danske Bank Premiership fixtures (all 7.45pm): Cliftonville v Crusaders, Glentoran v Carrick Rangers, Larne v Newry City.
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