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Despite a positive performance against Dungannon Swifts on Saturday, the Lurgan Blues fell to a 12th defeat from 13 league games this term and currently sit seven points adrift at the bottom. Glenavon endured the worst start to a top-flight campaign of any team since 1964/65 before picking up a maiden win in O’Connor’s first match in charge against Carrick Rangers. O’Connor’s assignment of masterminding Glenavon’s safety charge doesn’t get any easier with a return to table-topping Coleraine, where he served as Dean Shiels’ assistant before the duo departed earlier this year, awaiting this weekend. The Mourneview Park outfit will face three of the Irish League’s full-time teams across their next four Premiership matches – the other is a crucial showdown at Crusaders, who are currently their nearest rivals but have two matches in hand. Despite the odds being stacked against them, O’Connor maintains full faith Glenavon can pull themselves clear of danger. "If you look at the last two games we've played, you can see there's a bit of belief,” he said. "They had to believe themselves. "It's one thing me telling them, but the boys have stepped out on the pitch and had to believe that we'll turn it around and I honestly do think we will. "The players are too good to be where they are, but listen, that's football. We'll look forward instead of looking back now. "There's still loads of points to play for. Everyone keeps saying ‘you're going to struggle to stay up’, but I think it's still like 70-odd points to play for. "We'll keep taking every game as it comes and try and pick up points here and there. I've been happy with the start the boys have shown me.” O’Connor will be searching for quick answers to Glenavon’s lack of goals – they’ve failed to score in nine of 13 league matches this season. The Lurgan Blues created a number of opportunities at Stangmore Park with Jack Malone rattling a superb free-kick back off the crossbar while young wingers Paul McGovern and Corey Smith also looked dangerous. Glenavon will be coming up against a free-flowing Coleraine side that have impressed at both ends of the pitch under Ruaidhri Higgins. "Where we are on the table, we can't just sit in and hope for the best,” added O’Connor. “We need to have a go at teams as well, because the forward players we've got are definitely good enough to go and hurt teams on the other side. "The other side of it, our defensive structure has been really good...I don't think the last two games Mark Byrne had a save to make, which just shows that the whole team's been into it. "Sometimes when you're at the bottom of the league, things don't go for you. "But we'll have to just keep believing that we can get in there and get the chances and it'll drop for us soon. I'm really pleased with the boys wanting to get forward and get chances."
