Many thanks to the FF posters who provided directions to the ground. The short journey down the M1 from Belfast was straightforward. The game was played in front of a shirt-sleeved crowd of approximately 1200 and the ticketless fans had no worries as a pay-gate was in operation.
The only complaint from punters was the entry fee being £12. Consider that against a £10 entry to watch Linfield in the Champions league pre-lims the previous week. Glenavon's Mouneview Park is probably the best "fit for purpose" stadium in the Irish League with 3 small seated stands holding about four thousand seats and a terrace behind one of the goals giving it a capacity of somewhere around five and half thousand. They also have a couple of social clubs operating and fans where able to take beers (in plastic pint cups) into the stands.
Pre-match and half-time entertainment was provided by the excellent "Pride of Ballinran" flute band from Kilkeel and my favourite tune of the night was their version of the Rangers classic "Every Other Saturday." This particular band are starting to have a little bit of rapport with the Rangers support as they also provided the entertainment on the Gers last few visits to play Linfield. Glenavon appeared to have at least half of the support and it was strange to see young guys behind me, in Rangers shirts, jump for joy when Glenavon scored.
Rangers Squad: Emslie, Furman, Smith, McMillan, Lennon, Loy, Shinnie, Fleck, Harvey, Reidford, Lowing, Donald, McLachlan, Kenniburgh, Weir, Park.
Coach Ian Durrant.
As games go, the match can only be described as a poor spectacle and didn't do much for bringing punters back for more. It was with eager anticipation we entered the ground hoping to see a glimpse of a bright future for our beloved Gers. The opening exchanges saw a few goal chances from both sides and young Fleck was at the heart of anything positive from the young Gers. John Fleck has a great knack of peeling off defenders into space to receive the ball and he does seem to do it naturally without any real effort. As the game settled down it was Glenavon who were catching the eye as they dominated midfield and always looked the more likely to break the deadlock. As half-time arrived Rangers found themselves 1-0 down and many punters were talking about how poor some of our individual performances were and everyone hoped for a better 2nd half.
The 2nd half saw the introduction of Furman and Lennon and I thought this would bring a little bit of stability and cohesion to the proceedings. Sadly Rangers play became more wayward and lost, we conceded another goal and scraped a consolation towards the end. In summary, I thought last night provided evidence for those who would argue that young boys do struggle when faced with lesser skilled but more experienced opposition.
Players who caught the eye are:
Alan Lowing - very steady game, strong running, up for it and seemed to give plenty of encouragement to those around him.
Chris Smith - Very solid, no nonsense centre back, wins the ball, distributes it simply and is a good man to have on your side.
Dean Furman - Looked confident, wanted to put his foot on the ball and control things, unfortunately lack of movement around him prevented him showing much more.
John Fleck - Extremely hard working, skilful, neat first touch, lots of hunger, unfortunately for all of his endeavours, he was poorly supported and isolated for long periods.
Steven Lennon - A good eye for finding openings in the defence, intelligent movement, pacy when he does decide to go, allowed himself to be pushed off the ball too often.
There was a couple of players who caught my eye for all the wrong reasons but knowing youngsters I'm hoping they bounce back and go on to bigger and better things.
I've tried to keep this as positive as possible but the general feeling amongst the loyal (based on last night's performance) was that our future is far from bright.