Glentoran boss Mick McDermott has stoked the fires ahead of tonight’s semi-final with Cliftonville, claiming the club’s synthetic pitch is a “health and safety hazard”.
McDermott isn’t a fan of the Solitude surface and pointed to a number of serious injuries sustained by Glens players at the North Belfast venue.
“Solitude is a hard place to go and the pitch is a health and safety hazard as far as I’m concerned,” he claimed.
“The reality is we’ve had cruciate ligament injuries there in recent years so we’ll have to take into account who is coming back from injuries and so on.
“You shouldn’t be allowed to have football matches on it, I don’t care what anyone says, but they are a team in our league and we will go there.”
The Ovalmen have yet to win in the league, taking just one point from three outings. Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Coleraine was compounded by a double leg break for on-loan Barrow defender Bobby Burns, who had surgery yesterday.
“We have to get back in the saddle and start galloping again,” said McDermott.
Cliftonville, who lifted the Shield last season, beat the Glens 1-0 at Solitude on the opening day of the season. Boss Paddy McLaughlin said: “It was a real battle and this will be another tough game.”
