Glentoran boss Mick McDermott believes Shay McCartan is starting to purr at an ideal time for the league leaders.
The former Bradford City forward, who joined the Ovalmen from Ballymena United for a cool £120,000 in August, endured a largely frustrating first half of the season.
A two month muscle injury added to a recent two match ban and a lack of goals meant McCartan has largely been a peripheral figure in the Glens’ impressive charge to the league summit.
But a stunning free-kick in Saturday’s 4-0 Irish Cup win over Queen’s was a timely reminder of the 27-year-old’s undoubted quality heading into the business end of the campaign.
Ahead of Tuesday night’s league trip to Portadown, McDermott said: “Shay is a special player and a special talent. He’s also a good lad who works hard.
“At the start of the season it took him a while to get himself fit to play and he was starting to really buzz when he picked up a really unfortunate injury against Linfield (in September).
“Then the team goes on a run of games and he has to work his way back to full fitness and it took a long time, as with Marcus Kane who sort of had a similar injury.
“He’s probably disappointed he hasn’t got to play as much but he’s a professional, he knows how this works and he has worked his way back in now. He’s looking sharp in training and he’s hungry.”
McCartan, who bagged 21 goals for Ballymena last season, had scored just once for the Glens before Saturday’s Irish Cup thunderbolt at the Dub.
Lining a free-kick up 35 yards out, the two-times capped Northern Ireland striker stepped up and arrowed an unstoppable effort over the wall and into the roof of the net.
“His goal on Saturday was really special and his ability to do that is one of the reasons why he’s a quality player,” said McDermott.
“It’s one of the reasons why we got him in on Saturday, we needed him to get a goal and my goodness, he couldn’t have gotten a better one than that.”
Glentoran, who have won 13 of their last 15 outings in all competitions, lie two points clear of champions Linfield who visit the BetMcLean Oval for a title six-pointer on Friday night.
“We’re effectively playing three games in six or seven days,” said McDermott. “It’s not ideal in terms of workload, but it’s the league we’re in. We’re not complaining.
“It’s an important week but we’re only thinking about Portadown and we’ll put our fittest, strongest and best prepared team out on Tuesday.”
The Ports, fresh from losing 2-0 to Coleraine in the cup on Saturday, lie second bottom, four points clear of basement club Warrenpoint Town.
