I laughed at my emergency striker role, admits Glenavon goal ace Calum Birney

Glenavon 1 Coleraine 1

Glenavon’s Calum Birney celebrates after finding a crucial equalising strike against Coleraine at Mourneview Park

Glenavon's Calum Birney wheels away to toast finding a late equaliser against Coleraine

Jamie Glackin celebrates scoring the opening goal of the game in their duel with Glenavon at Mourneview Park

Jamie Glackin celebrates breaking the deadlock for Coleraine in their clash with Glenavon at Mourneview Park

Danny Wallace has his hands on his head after his sending-off reduced Glenavon to 10 men in their clash with Coleraine

Calum Birney is desperate to put the tough times behind him after a goalscoring return from his latest injury setback.

Not normally known for his finishing prowess, centre-half Birney grabbed an injury-time goal to rescue a point for 10-man Glenavon against Coleraine after being thrown into action as an emergency striker – something that he had laughed at when it was suggested to him by manager Stephen McDonnell.

Glenavon's Calum Birney wheels away to toast finding a late equaliser against Coleraine

His time at Mourneview Park has been somewhat stop-start. Birney has only made eight League appearances in 2023/24 due to an Achilles injury, but he now has three goals to his name, making him the team’s joint top scorer in the Sports Direct Premiership and maybe showing that McDonnell’s idea to utilise him higher up the pitch wasn’t so crazy after all.

“I really felt cursed coming to Glenavon,” said Birney. “I signed the January before Covid, obviously the League stopped in March and when we started back up, I was ruled out with a groin injury that led to surgery, so I missed a lot of that season.

“Since then, up until I picked up this Achilles injury, I played a lot of