Glentoran fire five goals past Glenavon in European semi-final

They may not have had much to shout about around east Belfast this season but efforts from Luke McCullough, Conor McMenamin, the Donnelly brothers – Jay and Ruaidhri – and an own goal by Robert Garrett sent the home faithful away with a smile on their faces.

Glentoran will now face Cliftonville at home on Saturday in a winner-takes-all affair – a lucrative European place up for grabs.

Gary Hamilton’s team were a pale shadow of the side unbeaten in their previous 10 games – a first defeat by Glentoran in four meetings.

Glentoran set out their stall right from the off and forced Glenavon goalkeeper Rory Brown into action after only 30 seconds, young defender Aaron Wightman sending in a shot.

The Glens took the lead on only three minutes. Niall McGinn’s corner-kick was met by McCullough, whose shot was blocked but when the ball looped into the air, the big defender rose high to head home.

McMenamin then burst down the right and tested Brown at the base of the post with a stinging low shot.

It was all Glentoran as Junior just failed to touch home McGinn’s low cross.

Glenavon at last attempted to make an impression with Jamie Doran whipping in a low cross met by Glens full-back Marcus Kane, who was fortunate to deflect the ball into the hands of Aaron McCarey.

But the second goal duly arrived 10 minutes from half-time. Rhys Marshall sent McMenamin clear on the left and, after waltzing past defender Sean Ward, he cooly drilled the ball past Brown at his near post.

It took a wonder save from Brown to keep out a blockbuster from Terry Devlin but on 53 minutes McMenamin eased his way past Danny Wallace and his cross was turned into the net by the unfortunate Garrett.

McMenamin’s low shot came back off the base of the post with Brown beaten before the visitors carved out two decent chances on the hour, only for Peter Campbell to shoot wide before Michael O’Connor headed against a post.

On 70 minutes, Matthew Fitzpatrick’s header came cannoning back off a post.

But three minutes later McMenamin eased past Wallace and crossed for Jay Donnelly to net.

The Donnelly brothers combined 11 minutes from time, with Jay setting up Ruaidhri for 5-0.

GLENTORAN: McCarey, Kane (Crowe, 76), McCullough, Burns, Marshall (Smith, 76), Singleton, Devlin, McMenamin (McCartan, 80), Wightman, McGinn (R.Donnelly, 68), Junior (J.Donnelly, 68).

Subs (not used): Webber, Purkis.

GLEANVON: Brown, Snoddy (Kerr, 88), O’Connor (Prendergast, 76), Fitzpatrick, Campbell (Atherton, 88), Baird, Wallace, Doran, Rogers, Garrett (Henderson, 76), Ward.

Subs (not used): Doyle, Norton, Lynch.

REFEREE: Tony Clarke.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​