Glentoran Community Trust Ormeau Park Festival
"Legends Match" - Updates
View the Legends Photo Album HERE
01/03/07 Donning the Red, Green & Black for One More Time - by Philip Stevenson
As part of the Glentoran Community Trust Festival at Ormeau Park on the 7th October 2007 to mark the 125th Anniversary of Glentoran Football Club, it has been my great pleasure to have been asked to assemble two teams of Glentoran Legends to partake in a game prior to the main Supporters match.
After a month of phone calls and cold-calling at addresses I am very pleased to announce that my mission is almost complete. When we first spoke about what format we could use for assembling the sides to take part, we finally settled on two teams of players that stand out in the clubs recent history and indeed are fully labelled as Glentoran legends in their own right. The sides chosen were the 1977 squad that lined up against the mighty Juventus, and the 1980-81 'Unbeatable' League winning side. We firstly sounded out Glentoran legend Johnny Jamison about our idea and it goes without saying that Johnny jumped at the chance of being involved. The names of the players were listed and phone numbers and addresses were sought and the quest began in earnest back in early January.
As I've said previously I felt very much like a school kid again collecting my Panini Sticker Album as each Legend was sought and approached and thankfully to a man NONE turned down our proposal! Indeed from an initial proposal of 32 players (16 per side) it snowballed, and along with some 'younger' legends added to bolster the squads we soon filled our 'sticker album'.
The full album can now be found at the link above, but for the record the full list of Legends that have agreed to take part as of Tuesday 13th February are ...
The 1977 Squad:
Trevor McCullough (Goals), Rab McCreery, Andy Dougan, Alex Robson, John Caskey, Billy Caskey, Steve O'Neill, Johnny Jamison, Warren Feeney, Ronnie McFall was a player in the 77 side but will be back again as Manager of the 80/81 team, & Arthur Stewart back as Player-Manager.
1980-81 Squad:
Alan Paterson, George Neill, Robert Strain, Trevor Erskine, Jim Cleary, Johnny Jameson, Ron Manley, Norman Porter, Gary Blackledge, Terry Kingon, Tom Stewart & Ron McCreery (sadly due to a serious injury Ron cannot play but has promised to come on the day). Ronnie McFall (Manager),
Guest Legends: Raymond Morrison, Billy McKeag, Gary MacCartney, Liam Coyle, Billy Sinclair, Barney Bowers, Reggie Hillen, David West, Gary Hillis, Tommy Craig, John Devine, Darren Parker ... & Paul Millar!
Referee: Walter Clarke.
One or two more Legends have still to be confirmed, but I am sure you'll agree we've been lucky to confirm so many former Glentoran Greats will be back together for one more time. All further additions and details will be announced on the GCT and other Glentoran websites and in the local media.
It certainly promises to be quite a day, so don’t forget to bring that autograph book, you may never have the chance to see so many Glentoran legends in one place ever again.
Philip Stevenson
View the Legends Photo Album HERE
Glentoran Community Trust Ormeau Park Festival
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