Big Bangor win, postponements & Glenavon’s woes – Premiership takeaways

Storm Amy had other ideas while a full slate of Irish Premiership games were scheduled for this weekend.

The weather caused both of Friday night’s games to be canceled, but Saturday’s four games still had plenty of intrigue.

With their defeat to Bangor and Dungannon Swifts, Coleraine and Larne both failed to capitalize on Glentoran’s lack of initiative.

In the late kick-off, Glenavon suffered yet another defeat as they were defeated by rivals Portadown while Ballymena United came from behind to defeat Carrick Rangers.

Glentoran will be happy to be leading the Irish Premiership table despite missing action as others did not, despite being disappointed to have missed a second successive game.

Due to a waterlogged pitch, players’ meetings with Cliftonville were canceled after last week’s game at the Oval against Larne was called off.

The Glens are one point ahead of the chasing pack, but it will be interesting to see how they will handle the fixture stackup and whether their recent lack of activity will end their early-season momentum.

After their home game against Crusaders was also postponed, Linfield are another team who will be playing catch-up to their rivals.

The team’s gutsy 2-1 victory over Coleraine at Clandeboye Park on Saturday captained a truly impressive start to life in the top flight for Bangor.

After Jay Boyd and Ben Arthurs scored clinical goals, Lee Feeney’s side took a two-goal lead at half-time.

Then, with Harry Lynch receiving a second yellow card, the momentum started to change.

Soon after that, Zane Okoro scored one more for the Bannsiders, but Feeney’s side stepped up and produced what former Bangor defender Colin Nixon called “manic defending” to secure their biggest victory of the season.

Gareth Deane saved two important saves against his former club, and Stephen McGuinness blocked Matthew Shevlin with a brave final touch.

The Seasiders move up to the top of the table with a win over Glenavon and Crusaders, who will look to take advantage of their chances in their next two games to put further strain on themselves against the relegation places.

Coleraine wasted the opportunity to rise above the table by failing to find a way through the afternoon.

Rodney McAree has expressed cautious optimism about Dungannon Swifts’ ability to turn things around with a 2-0 victory over Larne, which is their third straight victory.

With goals from Tiernan Kelly and Kealan Dillon, the Swifts won the match despite dominating the first half against Larne.

Sean McAllister and Junior impressed, and as the weeks progress, Kelly and McAllister appear to be good additions to the Irish Cup winners.

The hosts moved up to seventh place in the table with the victory, and they can start making Stangmore Park a fortress by taking on Glentoran the following week.

Larne’s six-game winning run was abruptly brought back to life with a bump, which brought them back to life.

Since they had neither conceded nor conceded since August 19th, Gary Haveron’s team quickly conceded two goals with one exception, both of which were incredibly defensive fragilities.

The corner was the poor defending for Kelly, who was free to bundle home, and Rohan Ferguson, who had given Junior possession of the ball in a dangerous area before being lobbed by Dillon for the second.

Larne will view defeat as a missed chance to rise to the top of the table, much like Coleraine.

The current situation for managerless Glenavon, whose predicament only seems to get worse as the season progresses, is extremely difficult.

With a 3-1 defeat at Portadown on Saturday, they fell 10 points clear of the top of the table and 10 points clear of the teams that were closest to them in a 10th straight league defeat.

Last weekend, the Lurgan Blues and Paddy McLaughlin parted ways, with the formation of a temporary management team for their trip to Portadown rivals.

When Luke McGerrigan, 17, pounced inside five minutes to start the scoring, they had a dream start.

Glenavon started well in the first half, but Ryan Mayse’s cross, headed in the free header, caused a total scuffle.

After some more poor defending, Steven McCullough glanced home with a near-post header before substitute Ben Quinn smacked salt in Glenavon’s wounds with a stunning third.

Glenavon’s players were dejected at full-time, and whoever the new manager will be will have the power to keep them in the top flight will undoubtedly be in charge.

Ballymena United have struggled recently despite a promising season, but they showed character when they came from behind to defeat Carrick Rangers 2-1 at Taylors Avenue.

Ryan McNickle made a smart Ballymena move to score his first goal for the club and earn them all three points after Kym Nelson equalized Nedas Maciulaitis’ opener in the first half.

Even though the sides around them have games in hand, the win propels the Sky Blues to fifth place in the table.

With a consistent run of games, McNickle will hope that his selection will demonstrate his readiness for the step up the top flight after joining from third-tier Newry City. One of the fringe players who received a start was McNickle, who undoubtedly justified his choice.

Jim Ervin, the head of Sky Blues, was impressed by what he saw going forward.

He said, “I’m delighted for him to get the winner because it’s his first start for us, he hasn’t played a lot of football for us, but he has worked extremely hard since he came in.”