Glenavon FC is set to face Strabane Athletic in the BOYLE Sports Championship. The County Tyrone club is in its first Championship campaign and has made a positive start. Although it lost 1-0 against Institute last Friday night, it played with ten men for 40 minutes after the dismissal of Callum Doherty. Athletic bounced back with an impressive 3-1 victory at Moyola Park. Sam McClintock scored twice in the first half and Sean McCallion added a third in the second period. Last season Strabane lost 5-2 against Cliftonville at Solitude in the Clearer Water Irish Cup but led 2-0 after early goals by Gary Merritt and Oisin Duffy. Michael O'Connor is expecting a difficult 90 minutes. 'It will be hard, as the first two games have been,' he said. 'We are still finding our feet in this league and finding out what teams are about. Strabane had a great win on Tuesday night and will be full of confidence.' Two fixtures into the new season, the Belfast man has already learned a lot about his own side. 'I watched last Saturday's match against Ards back and thought that we created enough chances to win two games,' he continued. 'Obviously we did not defend our box well enough and conceded three goals. But we had good opportunities ourselves and didn’t take them. Tuesday night at Newry was a big improvement. This time we converted more of the positive situations we created and defended better. Paddy Burns' header came at a crucial time. We had been on top for five or ten minutes and turned that possession into a goal. We were in total control after we scored the third.' O'Connor reckons that his players will need to get used to the ultra-defensive approach adopted by Ards last Saturday and to a lesser extent by Newry on Tuesday night. 'Ards sat in against us and tried to make it as difficult as possible for our attacking players,' he said. 'Newry were similar. We decided to go with two wingers for the midweek game as we thought that Peter Campbell and Jude Johnson would stretch them. We played a narrower formation in the first match and still created enough chances to win but just didn’t take them.' Michael does not believe that away fixtures will be any easier than home matches, even if opponents adopt a more positive approach. 'I don’t think that is necessarily so,' he said. 'We’ll need to be adaptable and mix it up against different teams depending on how they set up. We’ll have a game plan for every game and do our best to implement it.' The former Northern Ireland international was pleased with his players' application in the 4-1 success at the Showgrounds. 'You know what to expect when you go to there and face a Stuart King side,' he continued. 'They get in your face; they want a battle and are prepared to fight for first and second balls. Nonetheless, I thought that we matched and bettered them. That was part of my team talk. I told the lads that they would have to roll their sleeves up and do the ugly side well before we could produce the quality to win the match. They all went out and did that. It was a big reason why we left with three points.' Michael reckoned that Glenavon's most dominant spell of attacking play on Tuesday night was its impressive opening burst. 'During that period – the first twenty or twenty-five minutes – we created loads of chances,' he added. 'Peter Campbell had a goal chalked off for offside which looked really harsh. We were on top and were creating a lot of opportunities.' Glenavon FC currently stands 6th in the Championship with 3 points from 2 games, recent form WL. The team has scored 5 goals and conceded 4 this season, with a goal difference of +1. Their next fixture is against Newington Youth at home on 2026-09-19.