Hi °C | Lo °C 
There are smiles on the faces of people around east-Belfast again.
Their football team is winning again, they sit second in the Danske Bank Premiership and the doom and gloom that surrounded Glentoran throughout last season is starting to lift.
And the man with the biggest smile is Glens striker Andy Waterworth.
He has every reason to be happy too.
The 26-year-old has scored half a dozen times this season, with his goals coming in five of Glentoran’s six games. His double at Dungannon Swifts last Saturday shot Eddie Patterson’s men into second place behind Coleraine.
And that has set up a massive battle at the Oval this afternoon, when the top two go head-to-head.
Victory would put the Glens on top and that’s a feeling that they haven’t been able to enjoy for a while.
In fact, there hasn’t been much enjoyment for fans in green, red and black for a while.
Eighteen months ago only the intervention of a secret millionaire saved Glentoran from being put out of business by the taxman.
Earlier this year an Irish Cup defeat at the hands of Amateur League side Newington brought the club to its lowest ebb on the field and Scott Young quit as manager immediately afterwards.
There have been pay cuts, unpaid wages and signing embargoes along the way too.
Footballers are only human. No matter how much the Glentoran players tried to blank out all the mess that has been created off the pitch performances on the pitch were affected.
The Glens finished sixth in the Premiership last season — their lowest league position in 18 years — a massive 28 points behind champions Linfield, just three years on from winning the title themselves.
“Being a Glentoran player has been tough over the last couple of years, but it hasn’t all been our fault,” said Waterworth.
“There was so much going on off the pitch and eventually that starts to make it’s way into the dressing room and starts to have an impact on the players — you can’t help that.
“This season the manager and the coaching staff have told us to blank all that out and they have managed to keep us sheltered from it and kept us focused on football again.
“I think now things have gone the other way.
“The good things that are happening on the pitch has created a feelgood factor which is lifting the mood off it.
“I played in the Glentoran team that won the league three years ago, but the last couple of months have been the best time I have had at the club.
“Winning helps and scoring goals lifts your confidence.
“We’re up at the minute and we want to stay up for as long as we can.”
Hitting the front in the title race, even with just seven games played, would be a massive fillip for a group of players that lost confidence, self belief and too many matches last season.
“Saturday is a massive game and we’ve missed being involved in games like this over the last couple of seasons,” said Waterworth.
“It’s first v second, we will go top if we win, but we’ll go in as underdogs.”
You wonder if that smile that has broken out across Waterworth’s face lately is on show again as he says that.
Glentoran underdogs on their home patch? Surely not. The former under-21 international claims there is evidence to back up his statement.
“Coleraine are top of the league, they finished above us last season so even though the game is at the Oval they are favourites,” said Waterworth.
“People will argue with that and say that Glentoran are always favourites at home, but the Glentoran name isn’t enough anymore, we have to make the Oval a place where teams fear.”
That hasn’t been the case for a while. The Glens won just six home games last season, losing another six and Waterworth believes that opposing teams were arriving in east-Belfast with greater expectations than at any time in the past.
“The big thing that we have to do is bring the respect back to the shirt,” he added.
“Last season teams were coming to the Oval fancying themselves to take three points. It shouldn’t be like that.
“We have a long way to go though, we may be second in the table right now, but I don’t think we are even the fourth or fifth best team in the league.”
While Waterworth leads the scoring charts at present he, like any striker, is hungry to add to his tally and he believes he should already have had more goals.
“I’m just the last man and I am getting the benefit of the chances that are being created by the other lads,” said Waterworth.
“I’ve missed a few as well though.
“Last Saturday against Dungannon I missed three one-on-ones in the first half and I was starting to think that it wasn’t going to be my day.
“Thankfully I got another opportunity in the game and it went in and eventually I ended up with two.”
