Automatic European qualification 'must' be the aim, says Glentoran boss Rodney McAree

Although the East Belfast team appear to be out of the equation in terms of winning the title – they haven’t had their hands on the Gibson Cup since 2009 – McAree is targeting automatic European qualification.

The Glens sent out a message of intent with their demolition of ailing 10-man Portadown at the BetMcLean Oval on Saturday – nudging Niall Currie’s side a little closer to the relegation trap door.

They are now seven points adrift at the bottom with only five games remaining – it will be a great escape if they make it! But on the evidence of this performance, Championship football is more a probability than a possibility.

In contrast, the result catapulted the Glens up to fourth in the table – confidence is oozing for their up-coming trip to Inver Park. Jay Donnelly was the tormentor in chief, bagging a hat-trick, with Danny Purkis getting on the scoring stakes with a delightful double.

Even when Luke Wilson did pull one back for the Ports, they shot themselves in the foot by having Paul McElroy dismissed – a straight red card following a foolish ‘push’ on Terry Devlin.

“Larne will be smarting from their Irish Cup defeat by Ballymena on Friday, so they’ll have a point to prove, we must make sure we’ll meet the challenge head on,” McAree said.

“In saying that, we must focus on our strengths. It was good to score a few goals approaching the final five matches of the League campaign. . . automatic European qualification is our aim – it must be for a club like Glentoran.

“We must take maximum points from as many games possible . . . we’ll challenge ourselves in every game to see where it takes us – we want to finish as high up the table as we possibly can.”

McAree saluted the performance of three-goal Donnelly, who took his tally to 16 for the season.

“Jay is coming good at the right time,” he added. “His quality and his ability have never been in question. I thought he took his three goals brilliantly. He also dovetailed superbly with Danny (Purkis) . . . it's great to see your strikers getting on the scoresheet.

“Danny always puts in a good shift. We’ve got an array of talent up front and it’s in our own interests to get the ball forward to them – the more we do that the more successful we’ll be.”

On his team’s woeful showing, Niall Currie said: “Some of the goals we conceded were unbelievable, they were a calamity. To be honest, it was Kamikaze stuff. You can’t win football matches conceding the type of goals we did. But we can’t afford to feel sorry for ourselves.”

GLENTORAN: McCarey, Kane, McCullough, Burns, McCartan, Marshall (Wightman ‘66 mins), J Donnelly (Junior ‘72 mins), Singleton (Murphy 60), Devlin, Purkis (Plum ‘72 mins), McGinn (R Donnelly ‘66 mins).

Unused subs: Webber, McMenamin.

PORTADOWN: Mastny, Wilson (Walker ‘68 mins), Russell, McKeown, Chapman, McNally, Archer, Teggart (O’Sullivan ‘56 mins), McCawl, Friel (Almanzar ‘68 mins), McElroy.

Unused subs: Barr, Upton, Stedman, Igiehon.

Referee: Keith Kennedy.