Tiarnan O'Connor immediately tests the cold legs of Rhys Marshall as he cuts inside him and gets a shot away.

Tadhg Ryan holds on well at his near post though.

It is a bitterly cold night here at Inver Park and it must be impacting the muscles. Isaac Baird now pulls up holding his hamstring and is replaced by Rhys Marshall.

Dylan Sloan's night ends extremely prematurely as he pulls up with a dreaded hamstring injury.

He is replaced by Jordan McEneff.

A strong run through the middle from Cammy Palmer creates the opportunity for Dylan Connolly to break into the Ballymena United penalty area.

Not for the first time in the opening 10 minutes, though, Alex Gawne does brilliantly to get back and cover the danger.

That's shaping up to be a great little battle already.

Seven minutes in and the first corner of the night goes the way of Glenavon. It draws a sharp intake of breath from the home fans as the in-swinger is gathered at the second attempt by Rohan Ferguson.

Five minutes played and Ballymena United should be in front.

Calvin McCurry makes great ground down the right wing before squaring into the path of Success Edogun who gets in front of his marker at the front post.

The big striker gets a good connection on the ball but Glens' goalkeeper Daniel Gyollai reacts brilliantly to parry the ball away from goal.

Some early concern for Sean Graham who appears to have collided with a hoarding as he stretched to reach an Aaron Donnelly pass. However, after some treatment, he is ok to continue.

First corner of the night and it goes to the home side.

Early stages of this game but it's the visitors who have settled the best, turning the Ballymena United defence at every opportunity.

We are underway at Inver Park as the visitors, sporting a black and pink change strip, get us going on Steven Gregg's whistle.

Ballymena United's Kian Corbally gets us underway on a dry, crisp evening in north Antrim.

In-form Glentoran will be fancied to stretch their long unbeaten run given the respective league positions of the two teams but will be mindful of their last visit here, back in September, when a late Ben Kennedy goal secured the points for the Braid men.

Plenty to play for then for both teams at opposite ends of the table.

Its 6th v 8th here at Inver Park. After three defeats in a row without scoring, Larne are looking over their shoulder at an upwardly mobile Glenavon who are fresh off a morale-boosting 3-1 win over Cliftonville on Saturday.

Paddy McLaughlin goes unchanged from that side while Gary Haveron will be pleased to welcome Tiarnan O'Connor and Andy Ryan back to his goal-shy side. They are two of four changes from Saturday's defeat at Shamrock Park. Also in are Logan Wallace and Olatunde Bayode. Club captain Cian Bolger returns to the bench after a spell on the sidelines.

Larne: Ferguson, Donnelly, O'Connor, Graham, Nolan, Cosgrove (C), Sloan, Gallagher, Bayode, Ryan, Wallace

Subs: Graham, McKendry, O'Neill, McEneff, Bolger, Brown, Simpson

Glenavon: Ryan, Toure, O'Sullivan, Malone, McDaid, Quinn, Baird, McKeown (C), Murphy, O'Connor, Carlin

Subs: Byrne, Marshall, Snoddy, Campbell, Lynch, Atherton, McGovern

Image source, BBC Sport

Two teams in contrasting form meet at the Ballymena Showgrounds.

The home side haven't won a league game since defeating Loughgall just before Christmas while visitors Glentoran are unbeaten in their last 15 games in all competitions.

It was a similar tale at the weekend as Ballymena United lost 3-1 at Crusaders while the Glens defeated Coleraine 2-1 on Friday night.

The home side shows three changes to Saturday as Duncan Idehen drops to the bench while Caolan Loughran is suspended and Andy Scott hasn't recovered from an injury he picked up at Seaview.

In their place come Alex Gawne, Calvin McCurry and Daithi McCallion.

Declan Devine opts for two changes as Shane McEleney starts on the bench with club captain Marcus Kane not involved.

Dylan Connolly and Ciaron Coll get the nod to start.

Ballymena United: O'Neill (c), Lafferty, Gawne, Jarvis, O'Donnell, McCurry, Edogun, McCallion, McEleney, Corbally, Barr.

Subs: Johnston, Moore, McMullan, Hood, Idehen, Phinn, Munnis.

Glentoran: Gyollai, Lyons-Foster, Sule (c), Connolly, Palmer, Thomson, Coll, Amos, Pattisson, Russell, Jenkins.

Subs: Mills, Hvid, McEleney, Lindsay, Ferris, Douglas, Thorndike.

Referee: Jamie Robinson.

Image source, BBC Sport

Here's how things stand as we move towards the business end of the season.

Image source, BBC Sport

Image source, Inpho

Glentoran midfielder Fuad Sule says he will probably wait to the end of the season to determine if he will stay at the east Belfast club.

The 28-year-old moved from Premiership champions Larne to the Oval in the summer of 2023.

Sule has been a key figure in Glentoran's resurgence this season and they are currently on an unbeaten run of 15 games.

However, his contract expires at the end of the season and negotiations are continuing over a possible new deal.

"It's been very well documented, the situation with me at the moment - the people there are looking after the negotiations," said Sule.

"All I can do is try my best to perform at the best of my ability on a Friday or Saturday. I feel like I'm doing that at the moment.

"I don't tend to let these kind of things kind of influence me in how I play. It just depends on what happens and I'll probably wait until the end of the season to see what happens."

Crusaders will use £2.2m of levelling-up funding from the UK Government to help make Seaview a "vital piece of community infrastructure".

The money has been earmarked to develop a skills centre in the south stand of the stadium with the club believing it will "offer opportunities for people, young and old, to achieve and improve their lives"

"The club developed a very strong application and a robust business case within a very competitive, UK-wide challenge-fund," said Tommy Whiteside, the project director and treasurer of Crusaders.

"The skills centre will be a vital part of our infrastructure at Seaview as we seek to develop our premises as an open and welcoming modern small stadium."

The facility will be open to the public and offer courses and vocational opportunities, as well as pathways to further and higher education partners.

Image source, Inpho

Watch highlights of Glentoran's 2-1 win over Coleraine at the Ballycastle Road Showgrounds on Friday night.

Watch highlights from Saturday's game at Mourneview Park as Glenavon beat Cliftonville 3-1 in their most recent Irish Premiership game.

Watch highlights of Larne's weekend defeat by Portadown at Shamrock Park.