31st Dec 04. Ballymena United game - Tomorrow signals the half-way stage of the Championship race, if we beat Ballymena we'll have exactly twice the number of points that they do ... and have 1 point less than at the same stage 2 years ago when we won it!
Other than Elliott Morris I haven't heard of any major problems after our draw at the swamp, a few bumps and bruises but nothing fatal, I'd say if Elliott makes it it'll be more or less the same again. Make no mistake, this is a massive game for us, a win re-asserts ourselves on the chasing pack, and retains that 7 point lead over Portadown going to Shamrock Park on Monday. A win would do the players no harm at all either after a somewhat indifferent display last time out. We must keep winning, especially at home, keep that gap ... after tomorrow the others begin running out of games. Mon the Glens.
Match Betting: Glentoran 4/11, Ballymena Utd 15/2, and a draw 3/1. All odds supplied by TOALS bookmakers
30th Dec 04. Newry City ... could do themselves and us a favour tonight if they can take points off Portadown in a re-arranged New Years Day fixture at The Marshes. A win for the border club would even move Mac 'The Mouth' McCreadie's troops up to the dizzy heights of 6th in the League table! Ko is 7.45pm, updates here if I can.
29th Dec 04, 9.45pm. Steel & Sons Final Result - Glens II's 0-2 Bangor
Friendly? Shhhhh ... A wee bird tells me the Glens have provisionally agreed a friendly at the Oval with Eircom League side Shamrock Rovers for Tuesday 15th Feb 2005.
Second's Chance - Remember folks it's the replay of the abandoned Christmas morning Steel & Sons Cup Final tonight,
Glentoran Seconds and Bangor are back at Seaview after snow stopped play with about half an hour to go on Saturday. The wee Glens are looking to add a second piece of silverware to the already won George Wilson Cup, and I'm sure they would appreciate all the support they can get. Kick-off tonight is 7.30pm, and admission is £4 and £2 pay at the gate.
28th Dec 04. linfield 1 Glentoran 1 - Still 6 points clear at the top of the table, and with Portadown being held 2-2 at home to Loughgall it's pretty much as you were, the only team in the top 8 gaining ground on us being Limavady United with their 5-1 thumping of Institute. Match Report has now been moved HERE
Btw ... It'll be pay-at-the-gate for Portadown next Monday folks, £7 and £4, and for that price you'll be able to either have one of their 800-odd stand seats or a place on the terraces. I reckon there could be 1,500 - 2,000 Glenmen travelling that day, so if you're wee legs are still buggered after dancing in the New Year get your ass down there early for a seat!
26th Dec 04. Roll on tomorrow ...
BTW - Stuarty Elliott got another 2 for Hull City today!
23rd Dec 04. Bear with me folks while I get some last minute shopping in ...
Aye right! Ale-House here I come, webmasters have Christmas too ya know - last one out turn off the lights.
Roll on Seaview on the 25th by the way, 10.45am, Steel & Sons Cup Final, Glens Seconds v Bangor - part 1 of a festive double ... Right I'm off, now where did I put that thong :-)
21st Dec 04. Bus for Windsor - Ballymac will have 2 buses leaving the clubrooms for the linfield game on December 27th. The club will be open from 12 o'clock noon, and the buses will leave for the swamp at 1.30pm.
Early Betting: linfield 7/4, Glentoran 6/4, and a draw 2/1. All odds supplied by TOALS bookmakers
Results of the BallymacGSC Christmas Draw - HERE
19th Dec 04. Glentoran 4 Crusaders 1 - Match Report has now been moved HERE
17th Dec 04. Crusaders game - The 'Hatchetmen' are now the only team that can stop the Glens taking a run of 11 wins on the trot into the crucial Christmas holiday period. What a tremendous feat that would be for this team, given that for most of that time they've had to make do without the likes of Stephen Parkhouse, Tommy McCallion, Chris Walker, Scott Young, Tim McCann & Pat McGibbon! Six players that would walk into any other side in the League.
I suppose then with the Crues sitting bottom but one in the table, most of you will be thinking tomorrows tie is a forgone conclusion. Well not me. Never mind the fact Omagh Town made us fight right to the death last week, Crusaders just happen to have a nasty habbit of doing alright at the Oval. The corresponding fixture of this one last season ended in a 0-0 draw, but worse than that, the year before when we nearly had the League won by Valentines Day, the Crues had already came to East Belfast and beaten us 1-nil ... remember that wee ballix Dornan doin somersaults at the final whistle!
So believe me folks, we need to be well up for this one. Fortunately once again the team can report a clean bill of health, so I expect the same squad we had for Omagh last week should feature again this time. Three more points would keep the pressure well and truly on the chasing pack, there might even be the chance of an upset elsewhere too :-) Tally-Ho ...
Match Betting: Glentoran 1/3, Crusaders 15/2, and a draw 10/3. All odds supplied by TOALS bookmakers
Andy Kirk for Leicester? ... HERE
16th Dec 04. Irish Cup Draw ... LIVE - This mornings draw for the 2004/05 Nationwide Irish Cup will be posted right here on BallymacGSC.com as it happens. Be first to know who the Glens will meet in their 5th round defence of the trophy, with proceedings scheduled to get underway at 11.30am.
LISBURN RANGERS versus GLENTORAN - full draw HERE
14th Dec 04. Here we go again - Draw for the Glentoran Cup's this Thursday folks, take your pick ...
Ards, Armagh City, Ballyclare Comrades, Ballymena United, Ballynure OB, Bangor, Carrick Rangers, Cliftonville, Coleraine, Crusaders, Dungannon Swifts, Glenavon, Institute, Larne, Limavady United, Linfield, Lisburn Distillery, Loughgall, Newry City, Omagh Town, Portadown, Tobermore United, Ballinamallard United, East Belfast, Ballymoney United, Lisburn Rangers, Banbridge Town, Kilmore Rec, Donegal Celtic, H&W Welders, Coagh United.
12th Dec 04. Omagh Town 2 Glentoran 3 - Jeeezus, hard work or what! Tell ya what though, 4 points clear at the top now after the Mighty Larne done the scum for a point at the swamp :-) Don't ya just luv it when a plan comes together :-)
10th Dec 04. Omagh Town game - Not being one to tempt fate you'll understand, but ... January 12th 2005 will mark three years exactly since Omagh Town last beat the Glens. Eleven times the sides have met since then, Glentoran winning ten of them. The other, a 0-0 draw, came when we played our second string a week before the 2003 Irish Cup Final, having already been crowned Champions. The goal tally for all 12 games by the way, reads 36 for - 7 against!
Now let's look at the recent form guide. In 17 outings this season Omagh Town have YET to win a match! They lost all 6 of their League Cup fixtures, and have lost 9 of their opening 11 Premier League fixtures. They sat bottom of the League with a solitary point up until last week, when an injury time equalizer by Ballymena's Judas McBride denied them their first win of the season, but doubled their points tally to two. Glentoran have lost twice from 22 starts, drawn one and won the rest. We have already lifted the CIS League Cup and sit top of the League having won our last nine games on the trot. Omagh are conceding an average of 4 goals a game, while the Glens have conceded just one from their last nine League starts.
Far as I know everybody's fit bar Leeper who's got a touch of a cold, but even he hopes to make it.
Nobody, but nobody, is expecting anything but a Glentoran victory at St Julians Road tomorrow, let's just hope the bookies are right and we have another 3 points on the board by a quarter to five. 3 more games and we're half way there.
Ballymac's bus leaves Wilgar Street at 12.45pm, you're all very welcome to come along. Other buses at the link above.
Match Betting: Omagh Town 9/1, Glentoran 1/4, and a draw 4/1. All odds supplied by TOALS bookmakers
A double/double - Now it's the gaffer's turn for the Northern Ireland Football Writers Monthly Award. That makes it a 'double' for Glentoran in November, given that Colin Nixon has already claimed the Players version, and a personal 'double' for the Manager, in that he's now won 2 in a row!
9th Dec 04. Seem Familiar? ... Season 2002/03, when we so nearly won the heap ... after 11 games in the League we had lost just the once - like this season, by the odd goal at home to Portadown. Difference then was we'd actually won all the other 10 ... but after the 2-2 draw at Limavady this team's only won 9. Tut, tut, tut, time to get the finger out lads :-)
Of course, those 9 wins this season have all come in a row ... actually equaling the best ever run we had in the 2002/03 Championship winning year! A win at Omagh on Saturday would surpass even that!
'Return of the King' ... the conclusion HERE
7th Dec 04. Nicky - Player of the Month - Colin Nixon was today named the Guinness 'Player of the Month' for November. Not surpisingly really, when you consider the Glens right-back has been switched alongside Paul Leeman at centre-half, in a team who have conceded just a single goal in their last NINE league games! Well deserved indeed :-)
5th Dec 04. Glentoran 5 Dungannon Swifts 0 ...
... and I don't even think we got out of second gear! Match report to follow (Rest in friggin East today again!)
Btw - the scum beat Portadown 1-0 ... an unbelievable OG from the goalie!
4th Dec 04. Dungannon Swifts game - Would you settle for the League Cup result for this tie last year? Maybe ya friggin wouldn't! 8-0 that one finished, first domestic game of the season for the Glens as League Champions, and eagerly looking forward to the next eight months. Six months later Dungannon were back at the Oval in the League, the Glens scraped a 1-0 win, and finished the season just 14 points ahead of the Premier League newcomers in the final table. That 8-0 result happened on 16th Aug 2003, hard to believe what we've been through in just over a year isn't it, and look where we are now - TOP OF THE LEAGUE AGAIN ... and this time 12 points clear of the Swifts after just 10 games!
No harm to the visitors, but I hope that gap's 15 by a quarter to five today.
With 3rd placed Portadown at home to the scum in 2nd spot, what an incentive. A draw at Shamrock Park would open the gap at the top to 4 and 6 points, a win either way and we're quids in ... but only if we beat Dungannon. Personally I think we will. Tuesday night's defeat at Solitude couldn't actually have come at a better time, a wake-up call. We've got Omagh away and the Crues at the Oval over the next two weeks, a real chance to capitalize on any slips from the trailing pack ... before meeting the scum, Ballymena, and Portadown in a week! If we can hold it together over the next 5 or 6 games ... well ... you do the numbers. Today though comes first, 3 points, we really must cash in on the result at Portadown.
3rd Dec 04. And so it was ... our resident Bilbo Baggins continues his merry tale ... enjoy (I think) ... HERE
2nd Dec 04. Early Betting for Saturday ... Glentoran 2/7, Dungannon 17/2, and a draw 7/2. All odds by TOALS bookmakers
