Saturday 6th November

Cliftonville 1 Glentoran 2

Gilzean to the Rescue!!!

Ian Gilzean the new Signing from St.Patrick's Athletic scored his first goal for the Glens today as he scored the winner at Solitude to give the Glens a much needed 3 points if they are to keep up their defence of the Gibson Cup.

The first 20 minutes was a very scrappy affair and the home side had the better possession and the more clear cut chances to score, their best chance fell to Mulvenna who capitalized on a mistake by Chris Walker and with only Gough to beat he hit the top of the bar, a real let off for the Glens. The Glens did however take the lead in the 23rd minute with a pin point cross by Michael Ferguson who started in midfield today in the absense of Paul Leeman and there was Elliott to head home his 7th goal of the season, it seemed to take an eternity for the ball to nestle in the net, which McLaughlin was helpless to do anything as the ball lobbed over his head to put the Champions a goal up. The Glens then started to create more and more chances with Rainey shooting twice in a minute, one blocked and one straight at the keeper.  McCombe then headed wide from a corner by Elliott and all the Reds defence could do was to launch the ball out of the penalty area but the Glens returned it very swiftly.

In the 35th minute Brian Russell was booked when he fairly tackled the Cliftonville player but Referee Ross thought otherwise and booked the Glentoran center forward. Brian Russell was then brought down when through on goal and from the free kick Elliott placed his shot low and straight at McLaughlin.

Half Time 

Cliftonville 1 Glentoran 2 

The out of form Rory Hamill came on for the Glens at Half Time replacing the disappointing David Rainey who never really got involved in the match.

Gough then made his first real save of the match in the 47th minute when he had to smartly touch over a fierce shot by McCallion. On 20 minutes Ferguson had a chance to put the Glens 2 goals up but he dragged his shot well wide and on 25 minutes Cliftonville were level.  A neat build up with passes being exchanged before McCallion let fly from all of 23 yards and his bullet shot flew past Gough and into the top corner of the net, sending the rather small home crowd into hysterics. 

The Glens savior Ian Gilzean entered the game after  70 minutes when he replaced the quiet Tim McCann and his first involvement in the game was a clumsy tackle on the Cliftonville Left Back. With 10 minutes remaining Batey replaced Scott Young and had a glorious chance to seal the points but he sliced his shot wide.

With 2 minutes remaining we were all making our way around to the gates when John Kennedy stood over the ball on the left touch line, he crossed beautifully and there was big Ian Gilzean with his first for the club to win it for the Glens, the delight on his face was a wonderful sight, he had rescued the Glens from a worthless point to give us a tremendous victory, which is a great achievement as Solitude is not our best place to win.

Team