Glentoran boss Mick McDermott hopes his players can turn the anger of their Irish Cup expulsion into a hunger to qualify for Europe via the end-of-season qualifiers.
The Ovalmen, who finished third in the Danske Bank Premiership, face Glenavon on Tuesday night with the winners progressing to meet either Larne or Coleraine in Friday night’s final.
It is the last potential route into Europe for the Glens who missed out on a top-two finish in the league and were thrown out of the cup over the Joe Crowe eligibility affair.
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The Mersey Street club lost its arbitration case last month and while McDermott accepts the saga impacted on league form, he is confident the recent cup fallout is now firmly behind them.
“The Irish Cup situation was a kick in the teeth,” he said. “I don’t want to keep going on about it, but did it have an impact? Yes, absolutely.
"Nobody was more disappointed than me, but it’s over now and we have to put it behind us. We can’t allow that to affect us forever.
“We have to turn any lingering anger we have into hunger and focus on the play-offs.”
McDermott says the fact Glentoran fell off the title pace in March and April to finish third behind Cliftonville and eventual champions Linfield was a bitter pill to swallow.
The Mersey Street men led the title race after beating Linfield in February, but only three wins from their last 11 games saw them tumble out of contention.
“It’s hard to say we finished third in the league considering where we were a few weeks before and it actually sticks in my throat,” said McDermott.
“We did believe this could have been the year, but for various reasons it wasn’t. We have talked about it as a group and we know we dropped points at key moments.”
Glenavon boss Gary Hamilton believes the Glens will be "huge favourites" heading into tonight's play-off and under intense pressure to progress to Friday's final.
He told his club's website: “It’s a huge game for Glentoran with the money they’ve spent and the finances they have.
"Their fans will be demanding European football and that’s a given when you’re spending that kind of money and have the calibre of player they have.
“There’ll be a lot of pressure on them, whereas there’ll be no pressure on us, because if you ask anyone outside our club and fans, nobody will give us a chance. Our boys can play with no fear or expectation."
Elsewhere, Larne, who qualified for Europe via the play-offs last year, welcome Oran Kearney’s Coleraine to Inver Park.
The winners of the play-offs will join league runners-up Cliftonville and Irish Cup winners Crusaders in the first qualifying round of the Europa Conference League.
- TONIGHT’S TIES: Glentoran v Glenavon; Larne v Coleraine (both 7.45pm kick-offs).
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