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Tim McCann makes mentality claim as Glentoran's quest for silverware gathers pace

A picture of Glentoran’s Jordan Jenkins (right) celebrating with David Fisher
-Credit:INPHO/Jonathan Porter


Tim McCann hailed Glentoran's mentality as their quest for silverware continued to gather momentum. Tuesday night's 2-0 win over Ballymena United secured a semi-final spot in the BetMcLean Cup for the Glens.

They will now play Crusaders in the last four of the competition ahead of the Co Antrim Shield final with Larne. They also stretched their unbeaten run to nine games and McCann believes having that mentality will be key to bringing a trophy back to The Oval.

"Declan [Devine] said at the start of the season that we want to try and win every competition that we enter," said the first team coach. "I think it's a mentality that you've got to try and win every single game that you're playing. You're not going to win every game but that's got to be the mentality.

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"The longer you keep this unbeaten run going...we're in the semi-final of one competition and in the final of another. We are also in the next round of the Irish Cup and second in the league, so we've got to keep going and building on it."

Glentoran dominated large parts of the game against the Sky Blues but had to wait until the closing stages to finally make the breakthrough thanks to Jordan Jenkins before David Fisher clinched the win with five minutes to go.

McCann said: "We want to play on the front foot and get goals as we are at home, however, you have to give credit to Ballymena. I thought their shape was excellent and I thought they were very disciplined in what they were doing and they made it very difficult for us.

"Declan told the players at half-time to be patient and it will come. We maybe had to quicken the pace up a little bit more and maybe a better ball slipped through and things like that there.

"Luckily enough we got the breakthrough with Jordan and it was a purely instinctive finish, probably a goal only he can score. It was a fantastic slip inside by James Singleton and he hits it first time and it was a great finish.

"Ballymena stuck at it, they still caused us problems and were decent at set-pieces. They kept trying to hit us on the break and it was a game we had to really work hard and be defensively sound white trying to get the second goal. Lucky enough we did with a great finish by David Fisher."

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The two sides meet each other again in the league on Saturday at The Showgrounds and McCann is expecting another tough affair.

"It's always difficult playing teams back-to-back because two games are never the same," he said. "Ballymena are at home now, they'll want to come out and have a go at us, so we know it's going to be difficult.

"It's a difficult pitch to play on, they'll have their home support behind them, so we have to go up there and most importantly work harder than them. That's where we are getting our success."

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