| 1993 Article on the Irish Cup Finals
which appeared in the County Down Spectator
"This evening the Irish Cup sits proudly in the trophy
cabinet at Clandeboye Park, testament to an epic performance
against neighbours Ards over three games at Windsor Park.
It nestles next to the League Cup trophy, won only three weeks
ago, and effectively hides the last important trophy chalked
up by the Seasiders, a small plastic beaker awarded for second
place for the best Irish League Programme in 1973."
"Speaking as one who has followed Bangor throughout
this epic season - albeit on Ceefax, save for the finals I
can say without hesitation that their performances have made
me proud to be a Bangorian, and proud to have been there for
their crowning achievement on Tuesday night. The scenes of
celebration afterwards are something I will relate to my children,
or at least I will tell their foster parents and ask them
to pass the message on."
"Bangor has often been regarded in the past as a rugby
town, obsessed, as the saying goes, with a game played by
men with odd shaped balls, but the Irish Cup run has revealed
that soccer is really the only sport the town really cares
about, What other sport could attract so many supporters,
match after match could provide such passion, such power,
such elegance?"
"I am of course a Bangor supporter going way back into
the mists of time. I, like so many of the old fans, have paid
my dues. I deserve this success. I spent seven years in the
press box at Clandeboye Park, and that was during one game.
Those were the days when Bangor won the toss and not much
else, when the fanatical support at the Abattoir End amounted
to a couple of cows on death row and three fat old men who
spent ninety minutes pacing the touchline shouting abuse at
their own players."
The press box then was indeed a grim place to be, when visiting
reporters from the Big Smoke would arrive with their stories
of another Bangor humiliation already prepared. Those were
the days when Bangor had to apply, for re-election more often
than Margaret Thatcher.If it was painful watching it, imagine
having to write about it, week in, week out, for seven years.At
one point the Bangor management invited me down to a crisis
meeting in the Royal Hotel to discuss the situation. Now that
sounds pretty dramatic, but what it amounted to was a couple
of sad old men crouched over their pints asking me why I didn't
give more positive coverage to the club. This was at a time
when they hadn't won for three years, had had six hundred
and fifteen goals scored against them, and scored three of
their own. Naturally I agreed, as the club in those days was
known more for an incident in the paramilitary field rather
than on the soccer pitch. Remember the days before the current
Paul Byrne hysteria - well deserved Paul Byrne hysteria I
might add - when the club signed their first player from south
of the border? Somebody ran onto the pitch at their training
session with a gun and fired a couple of shots at him. Typically,
shots on target were nobody's strong point back then and he
lived to play another day, albeit at a safer club.
"It just shows how times have changed for the better
that players like Paul Byrne can become true heroes no matter
what their origins. It shows that the religions can get together
and exist in harmony, enjoy the sport, forget their differences.
I wonder what would have happened if he'd been wick?
The highlight of the season has been the determination of
the club to play good, attractive football, a comment that
can scarcely be levelled at Ards, whose negative tactics in
the three finals helped make the games such a dour experience.
Still what fast, exciting thing ever came out of Newtownards,
besides the dual carriageway?
If the performance of the Bangor team throughout the season
has been exceptional, the enthusiasm of the supporters has
been little short of phenomenal, far outreaching the level
generated during the club's first European season three years
ago.
Over the course of the three finals it became quite clear
the profound differences which exist between the followers
of Bangor and Ards; a sociologist would have had a field day
analysing and comparing the communal singing and meticulously
prepared banners. The Bangor fans, tor example, showed
an awareness of social conditions and economic history in
their singing of 'You still live in the eighteenth century'
at their Ards rivals. The dangers of radiation were recalled
in the singing of 'Post Chernobyl Mutant Ards' (although it
is believed that radiation in Newtownards normally refers
to standing to close to a radiator). Ards fans showed
all their intellectual vigour by singing, 'Boring Bangor'.
The Ards banners were intriguing. 'David Jeffrey sits on Seagulls'
seems a bizarre claim to make about a player; perhaps some
obscure ritual to bring good luck. Equally, a forty foot long
banner stating that Nigel Best talks bullocks' seems to suggest
an agricultural awareness the Bangor manager has not previously
been noted for
"Ah, but what memories we will take into the future
of Bangor's epic cup run, of the three finals it took to sort
the men from the boys. We will remember the well drilled Bangor
supporters who organised guerilla style Mexican waves along
the South Stand; the classic Ards drunk being dragged round
the edge of the pitch by an ever growing band of RUC men;
the RUC dog, barking madly, which suddenly became as gentle
as a lamb when decorated with a Bangor scarf; Mark Glendinning
twice scoring equalisers to prove that there is justice in
this world; Paul Byrne scoring not just a winner, but a classic
winner.
With ex-Seasider Steven Morrow creating records (and breaking
bones) at Arsenal, Alan Kernaghan making his mark at International
level and Bangor winning the Irish Cup, who can say that we
are not now at the centre of the football world, nay, universe?
That in years to come when the name Best is spoken, people
will say: which one? That when Bangor lift their first European
trophy, David Jeffrey will still be sitting on Seagulls?
Sometimes I wish I hadn't been born in Ards."
Many thanks to Colin Bateman for authorising the use
of this article.
Acknowledgement to the County Down Spectator |
