Saturday 17th February 2024 ko 15:00

IFA Premiership

GLENTORAN 8 (Fisher 3 45 Burns 18 O’Connor 27 35 54 Junior 67p Lindsay 90+3)

NEWRY CITY 2 (Salley 10 Carroll 82)

Att 1,725

Entry £13

Programme £4

Glentoran socks £5

When people discover I’m a groundhopper I tend to get asked two questions. One is how many grounds I’ve visited, which is easy enough to quantify and the second is what is my favourite? Back in the day that was more difficult, do I give a ground most will know about like the Nou Camp or something I loved like Hastings United that isn’t quite as well known. Then 10 years ago I headed for Belfast, visited Glentoran and ever since it’s been 2,500, and Glentoran.

But 8 years ago, I met Robyn now my wife, and she soon asked those two questions and from that moment on it was a question of when I was going to bring her to The Oval. In fact, the only thing I don’t understand is why it took us so long?

So there we were the previous day at Birmingham Airport waiting for our flight. I found myself thinking about what it is about Glentoran and The Oval that puts it on every single groundhopper’s bucket list?

For me, it’s the fact that it ticks just about everything we collectively like. You like a curved terrace? There’s two here, and do you like pitched rood stands? Just look at the two here. Fancy a backdrop? Here you’ve got the Harland & Wolff Shipyard, builders of the Titanic, and the two massive yellow cranes, Samson and Goliath. There’s even the chance to put planes (from George Best Airport) or trains on the Belfast to Bangor line.

You like a slice of history? This is the club whose fans rebuilt the ground after the Luftwaffe razed the place during the World War II Blitz. That machine gun nest may be a real curio but try imagining being in it when East Belfast was been flattened. Then there’s the club that won the very first European trophy, the Vienna Cup in 1914, a feat recognised by UEFA. Or even the club that turned down a 15 year old George Best for being “Too small and light.”

For me though there’s two reasons over and above all that loveliness. The first is the backdrop that fewer photograph, beyond the Main Stand into the tight streets of East Belfast’s terraced houses. Do it right and you photograph Glentoran’s history, the club is named after a house here, and those houses are its reason to be.

The second is Ricky Rea, former club secretary, player and just about every role you can think of at Glentoran. It was Ricky that gave Sim and I that wonderful guided tour of the ground ten years ago, and did the same for Robyn, Ben and I this time round. We reached the directors box, and he admitted he’d delayed his retirement by a week to show us round. Days later I’m still lost for words, save to point out that clubs aren’t made of bricks and mortar, they’re made of people like Ricky.

It is worth reinterating that The Oval in its current form cannot last. It is way too big for Glentoran’s needs and expensive to maintain and so there are no end of plans to demolish and rebuild here. It won’t be what you see now, but it will allow Glentoran to progress. That process was stalled with the breakdown in devolved government at Stormont, but with the Northern Ireland Assembly now back and running, development funds will be released. How quickly that will reach The Oval is anyone’s guess, and it does seem that the priority is the rebuilding of Casement Park as Northern Ireland’s stadium for Euro 2028.

For me, the atttude to take is visit The Oval while you still can. Robyn admitted later that she was going to try a wind-up saying Glentoran is lovely, but she preferred Fraserburgh. We parked up, she saw that stand, and the plan evaporated! In fact, she walked out later, having bought a Glentoran gin glass. Noone sells their club like Ricky does!

We got plenty of goals too, and with all respect to another friendly club, Newry City their defending showed why they’re bottom of the table, even though I’m sure the hosts will wince at the two goals they conceded. That said, it was certainly entertaining, and it was lovely for Ricky to see a thumping win in that last game before retirement. Next time he can join me in the stand!

It was a wonderful experience returning here, and I loved seeing the place rock Robyn and Ben back on their heels, as Sim and I had done all those years ago. But my personal legacy of the Oval will always be that it’s made the answer to those two questions really easy.

“Two and a half thousand, and Glentoran.”