Glentoran boss Mick McDermott has praised his players for silencing the “orchestra of the shadows” with a bright performance in Friday night’s Big Two derby.
The Ovalmen, who came in for heavy criticism after a 4-0 home defeat to Crusaders the previous week, responded with a deserved share of the spoils at Windsor Park.
And while the result all but ended the East Belfast club’s faint hopes of winning the title, McDermott hailed his team’s response after a testing week.
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“The reaction from a very small minority of fans and some of the media stories that came out were, in my opinion, a bit out of order,” said McDermott.
“Have we lost points? Yes, of course we have. But to call the players ‘gutless’ and say they have ‘no bottle’ was really unfair.
“It’s not a lot of people in our fanbase who give stick. There’s a handful and they always do it when something happens.
“I call them the orchestra of the shadows. They only play and the music only starts when something happens, but the orchestra is always there.
“They don’t play when we’re sitting joint first or second or having great performances. The instruments are put away until something happens.
“It’s the same people and it’s not a big section of our fans as you saw tonight. There were probably 3,000 (Glentoran) fans there tonight who clapped the boys off.”
McDermott, who marked three years at the helm last month, came in for flak in the media last week, but insists his focus remains 100 percent on the Glentoran project.
“We’ve had two consecutive European campaigns and last week we were sitting third and still in a title race, but apparently we were a ‘club in turmoil’,” he said.
“You saw the stories and probably read some of them. Nothing could be further from the truth, but that’s what you have to deal with when you’re Glentoran.
“It’s predictable and there’s a desperation (out there) that Glentoran doesn’t succeed. If that’s not crystal clear for anybody else, it is for me.”
Friday night’s result coupled with Cliftonville’s scoreless draw with Larne on Saturday means it’s basically as you were at the top of the table with three games to play.
The Glens, who are likely to feature in next month’s European play-offs if they miss out on a top-two finish, are five points below second-placed Cliftonville and six off leaders Linfield.
“We have to keep believing that anything can happen,” said McDermott. “We’ll never concede and mayhem can happen in this league. We have to keep playing.
“We have three games left and potentially two more if we’re in a European play-off.”
Jordan Stewart put Linfield ahead at Windsor before Conor McMenamin equalised with a stunning strike for the visitors before the break.
The Blues went on to create several chances in the second period, but McDermott was left to rue a dominant first half which saw Michael O’Connor twice rattle the woodwork.
“We had 11 shots in the first half, they had two,” he said. “If you’re on top like that, you have to take advantage of it and we didn’t.
“People will probably say it was a fair result because they had chances in the second half, but I think we should have taken care of business in the first.”
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