McLaughlin put O’Connor’s current fine form and the enjoyment he is deriving from the game down to “his own hard work and attributes”, plus a desire to “prove his doubters wrong”.

“Whenever you get him focused on his football he’s one of the best strikers in the country, there’s no doubt about that, and he’s proven that over the last number of months that I’ve been here,” said the Glenavon boss.

“He has his own desire and determination to prove his doubters wrong and he’s doing that brilliantly at the moment. There are a few out there, maybe not as many as there were in the past.

“He’s like every player, he needs encouragement and an arm round his shoulder sometimes, as well as needing a kick up the backside sometimes. He responds to both really well.”

Glenavon’s impressive series of recent results has elevated them to ninth place in the table, level on points with eighth-placed Coleraine above them and 13 ahead of Carrick Rangers, who occupy the promotion/relegation play-off spot in 11th.

McLaughlin’s charges host another in-form side, Crusaders, in their next top flight encounter on Saturday.

“It’s important we continue to keep level headed and grounded – keep our feet on the ground and don’t get carried away.

“We need to keep doing what we’ve been doing, working our socks off and playing our football.

“The quality’s there within the group and we knew that before we came in. Now we’re getting the best out of them. With the momentum we have you never know what can happen.”