Defender Calum Birney rescues Glenavon with perfect return as emergency striker

​Injury for the experienced defender has left Birney’s focus more on the treatment table than the teamsheet since Stephen McDonnell’s September appointment as manager.

However, he celebrated a Saturday return to the side with an emergency introduction up top for the 10-man Lurgan Blues and made his mark by bagging an injury-time equaliser against Coleraine.

The visitors to Lurgan had kicked off the scoring off Jamie Glackin on 78 minutes, with Glenavon’s run of successive Sports Direct Premiership wins under threat following a Danny Wallace dismissal late in the first half.

However, Birney had the final say and felt in his post-match interview "I was in the right place at the right time at the end”.

"It's been a tough eight weeks probably, I've been struggling with an Achilles injury and came back to training on Thursday night,” Birney told BBC Radio Ulster. "Stevie put me on the bench today...he joked during the week, or at least that's how I took it, about possibly coming on as centre-forward.

"It's funny it's just the way football sometimes works.”

He added: "It felt good, I think over the course of the game the draw was probably a fair result.

"The red card had a big bearing on possession and things like that but, to a man, our boys were super and worked extremely hard.

"Stevie just alluded (at half-time) to the spirit and togetherness that we've built over the last number of weeks which has come as a result of winning games of football.

"Glackin's goal was a good finish but felt like a real sucker-punch but the boys dusted themselves down and, thankfully, we got one at the end.

"Stevie's brought his own ideas, his own philosophies and everything else.

"He's very hands-on and he's got the best out of players so far.

"It's still early days but it makes it a lot easier for players to buy into new ideas when you're winning games.

"It's absolutely massive (to protect the unbeaten run).

"We have been winning games but the important thing is when you cannot win then don't get beat."