Saturday 30th October

Linfield 2 Glentoran 0

Gutless Glens Crumble at Windsor

Today at Windsor Park the battle of the old enemies, the second big two encounter of the season and this won went to Linfield. A smaller crowd than was expected, which was pretty even after the first 15 minutes the only real talking point was the injury to Glentoran center forward Brian Russell who was taken off with a head injury and was replaced by the out of form Rory Hamill who had very little to contribute in his 75 minutes on the pitch. The next ten minutes there were a series of corners for both sides, going from end to end but neither caused any problems for either defence. 

Linfield's first goal came in the 25th minute with William Murphy heading unmarked heading past the stranded Gough. The Glens then started to find their feet and started to amount some pressure on the Blues until Half Time, endless corners but no one was willing to challenge and were too easily cleared. With five minutes to go to half time there was a seven minute delay, the cause of it was that there were no more footballs available to carry on, they were all in the lower deck of the North Stand which was unoccupied today and no one bothered to retrieve either of them, so referee Alan Snoddy just stood in the middle of the pitch looking around him hoping that the situation would blow over, the chants coming from the Glentoran end "You've only got one ball and Let's all laugh at Linfield but in the long run the Blues were the ones who had the last laugh". The ball was finally retrieved and there was 9 minutes added on to the first half.

Half Time Linfield 1 Glentoran 0

The second half started later than usual due to the delay in the first half and again it was Linfield who scored once more, again a free header which should have been dealt with better by Nixon and Gough who stood and watched as Marks stooped to head home the second goal right in front of the kop. Three minutes later it was nearly 3-0 as Morgan ran onto a through ball which looked suspiciously off side and beat Gough with his low shot but couldn't beat the far post which rebounded and was cleared by the thankful Walker.

On 59 minutes Gilzean was replaced by Michael Ferguson who was infact the best Glentoran player when he came on, Hamill switched to playing center forward and made very little progress from what he had done in Midfield, then the shock of the day with Tim McCann being replaced by Davey Rainey, surely not the Glens losing, and two forward players taken off surely Roy Coyle had a better option than that. 

The Glens only managed their first real shot on target on 70 minutes which was easily picked up by the impressive Mathers and the Glens doubled their shots on target tally with a soft McCombe header straight at Mathers. The Blues had plenty of chances to increase their lead which the Glens got off the hook with, and in the final 10 minutes the champions couldn't even string a pass together giving the ball away numerous times and really started to embarrass themselves in those final 10 minutes.  All in All a pathetic performance the big occasion proving to much for Glentoran, too many players gave up far too easy and on this showing the Glens will never their repeat their success they had last season

Team

Glentoran

Gough 5(Looked Very Dodgy, too many unnecessary mistakes)

Nixon 5(Didn't look around enough to find a green shirt which evolved in him hoofing it up-field every time)

Kennedy 5(Far too slow, too many stray passes, out of position too many times)

Walker 6(Did reasonably well considering there was no midfield tracking back)

McCombe 6(Did reasonably well again considering, was strong in the air as always)

Leeman 5(Too slow in passing, moving and really looked lost all match)

McCann 6(Again stayed at it all game but lacked the support from his team-mates)

Gilzean 4(PATHETIC!!!!!!!! Enough Said)

Elliott 6(Tried to Dribble too much instead of passing the ball again lacked support)

Young 5(Every Set Piece Young Takes this Season is rubbish, cannot cross a ball either especially from a corner)

Russell 5(Looked Reasonably envolved in play in his 15 minutes was jumping well causing a few problems Went off Injured after only 15 minutes)

Subs

Ferguson 7(Looked the Glens best player when he came on playing in a midfield role and was passing the ball around nicely at times)

Hamill 4(Too Slow in everything he does, does not look interested)

Rainey 5(Didn't get a clean chance or run when he came on, was left on his own out on the left)