A stroll for Glens
Title defence off to great start

GLENTORAN won their opening Irish Premier League game for the first time in three seasons.

After a stuttering opening the Glens broke the deadlock on 25 minutes through Peter McCann and after that there was only going to be one winner.

Glens manager Roy Coyle was forced to hand a first team debut to goalkeeper Ian Mannus as regular number one Elliott Morris missed a game for the first time in almost three years through injury.

Also in the Glentoran line-up were Philip Simpson and McCann making their league debuts for the club.

Distillery made one change to the side that beat Larne last Saturday, with Ryan McCann returning after suspension.

It looked as if the home side had set out to test Mannus at the earliest opportunity and with just four minutes on the clock he clashed with James Willis.

This sparked a melee involving most of the Glentoran defence and Willis earned himself a yellow card for his trouble.

Whites fullback McKeown then got on the wrong side of referee David Malcolm when he became involved in an innocous altercation with Chris Morgan and joined Willis in the referee's notebook.

Glentoran took advantage of some slack play in the Distillery defence to open the scoring with 25 minutes gone.

Morgan collected the ball with his back to goal on the left side of the box, turned and shot with his left foot, however, he pulled the ball well away from goal and McCann was on hand stealing in on the blind side to tap in his first domestic goal for the club.

McKeown then sent a free kick from 35 yards which flew wide off the post before Glentoran had the ball in the net again in first half injury time.

They cut Distillery open down the right hand side but in the build-up Michael Halliday had strayed into an offside position and although Morgan tapped home at the back post the effort was ruled out.

On 51 minutes Distillery's best chance of the game so far came when Willis had a free kick from 20 yards that skimmed the crossbar.

Three goals in a 13 minute spell then clinched the three points for Glentoran.

They made it 2-0 on 58 minutes when Shaun Holmes picked up the ball in space and fired a ground shot from 25 yards into the bottom corner of the net.

A defensive slip on 68 minutes led to the Glens' third.

Morgan took advantage but could only shoot against the legs of Philip Matthews, but from the resulting corner Mark Glendinning saw his effort just slip over the line.

It was another right wing corner from which the Glens got their fourth goal. First Glendinning popped up with a header, then Halliday too tried to score with is head before Morgan nodded in at the far post.

Morgan picked up an injury in the process of scoring that goal and was replaced by Gary Browne.

Just as the game entered injury time Mannus' clean sheet was spoiled when a Paul Muir header Distillery some small consolation.

LISBURN DISTILLERY: M atthews , McKeown, Thompson, R McCann, Buchanan, Muir, Kilmartin, Hagan, Armstrong, Willis, Murphy. Subs: McLaughlin, Coffey, Armour.

GLENTORAN: Mannus, Nixon, Glendinning, Simpson, Leeman, Holmes, Melaugh, Parkhouse, Morgan, Halliday, P McCann. Subs: Browne, McMenamin, Ward.

Referee: David Malcolm (Bangor).