Old News - February 2007
28th Feb 07. Halfers Draw v Derry City ... was won by Maurice Campbell of Stormont GSC, for the 3rd time!! Drawn by Gary Browne, ticket no. 8826 this time won Maurice £270.
27th Feb 07. Glentoran 0 Derry City 1 - Thought we gave Derry City WAYYY too much respect for a team who hadn't even played a competitive game before last night. That allied to the fact half their side never met before Christmas we really should have taken the game to them far more, and ultimately paid the price. Beaten at the Oval yet again, and the sad part is nobody really looked surprised ... a shrug of the shoulders and off home. It's almost as if we're resigned to it now :-(
25th Feb 07. DOGHOUSE! Is anybody else's head hangin off this mornin ... :-( Who locked up?
Halfers Draw v Newry ... was won by Julie Bennett, £310 with the ticket no. 9401 drawn by Kyle Neill.
23rd Feb 07. Glentoran 2 Newry City 0 - "Glens just 3 behind", Hamilton & Nicky, and Newry had a player sent off before half-time. We'll take the 3 points ... be thankful if you couldn't make it :-(
Newry game - Tomorrow mornings' paper could be a real collectors item, with the bold headlines of "Glens just 3 behind" in danger of having some of you choke on yer weekly Ulster Fry! I wouldn't waste that last bit of Tatty Bread or Vegetable Roll though, coz by a quarter to 5 that afternoon rest assured we'll be back to 4th place again :-( You see even if we do manage to beat Newry tonight, all top 3 sides are at home to a bottom 3 side this weekend, and each of those top 3 have collected more league points individually than all bottom 3 have added together! Ya cheered up yet? No? Well let me tell you what that really means. If we assume the top 3 teams are all on home bankers, then if we don't beat Newry tonight we'll be as good as 5 points adrift of 3rd place, 6 off 2nd, and 9 off the top ... and there'll only be 8 games left to play!! No pressure eh ;-) There is one piece of good news though, hard as it may be to believe, in the 7 League games played since Boxing Day ... Newry have actually a worse friggin record than we do!!! So, second of three games in a week coming up, tired legs maybe but I don't wanna hear it, anything other than a win this time simply won't do. It's the 4th occasion we'll have met Newry City this season, Glens winning 2, and Newry 1 thus far. If the border club manage to even it tonight you'd be well advised to take a very heavy coat with you against Derry City next Monday night ... coz with nobody else there to block the wind round you you're gonna be friggin freezin ;-) 7.45 ko for both games.
Match Betting: Glentoran 4/9, Newry 6/1, and a draw 11/4. All odds supplied by TOALS bookmakers
21st Feb 07. Michael Halliday - Fairly common knowledge now that Michael Halliday and his wife Arlene have been having a traumatic time lately with daughter Madison taken into Hospital Intensive Care. Better news of late is that Madison has now been moved into a ward, albeit still being kept under constant supervision. Needless to say we are all thinking of the family at this very worrying time, and God willing all will turn out well.
Portadown 1 Glentoran 1 (AET) - Portadown won 4-3 on penalties.
20th Feb 07. STOP YER MESSIN AROUND ... if you want tickets for DOGHOUSE!
Ok folks, the 400 tickets for the GCT Doghouse GIG at the PA this Saturday night have SOLD OUT! Good news though is we've managed to get some more printed! You can get them from GCT Board members tonight at Portadown and again at the Oval this Friday night at the Newry match until they're all gone, also from the 'Halfers' hut. DON'T LEAVE IT TOO LATE! There'll also on the night be a chance to win an LCD TV / DVD combo, VIP Viewing Lounge Tickets for Northern Ireland v's Sweden, an AXL Electric Lead Guitar (donated by the band themselves), combined Meal & Cinema Tickets for 2 at the Park Avenue and Strand Cinema, and block family Cinema Tickets for the Strand and Antrim Ciniplex! Remember ALL the proceeds from this GIG will go towards the £7,000 needed to fund the Glentoran Community Trust Ormeau Park Festival in October. For a taste of what you're missing click HERE, (that's Doghouse themselves playing)! Media Player reqd.
Portadown game - Not a lot to be said about this one, nothing that'll make any difference anyways. After tonight one of the favourites will be out of the competition, simple, but I see no reason whatsoever why it should have to be us! On our day we can beat anyone in the country, player for player we're as good as anyone in the country ... on our day. The bookies aren't wrong, there's nothing in the betting. An old cliche I know, but it really is all going to come down to who wants it most, and that wee bit of luck. What a boost this could be to the remainder of our season. The very best of luck lads, it won't be for the want of support. Ballymac's bus leaves at 6.30pm and all visitors are once again very welcome to come along, others at the link above. Match Betting: Portadown 6/4, Glentoran 8/5, and a draw 11/5. All odds by TOALS.
Shels in freefall ... I mentioned last month that Eircom League Champions Shelbourne were in major diffs, wait'll ya hear the latest. The team that knocked the Glens out of the Champions League so easily a few years back, then proceeded to give us a couple of footballing lessons in the Setanta Cup last year - in essence the team we all privately seem to aspire to ... have just been demoted to the Eircom Leagues' First Division and are about to be kicked out of the Champions League! And you think we've got troubles! HERE
19th Feb 07. Halfers ... winner v Larne was Jennifer Garrett and son Ben, £410 with the ticket 0927 drawn by Ryan Berry.
18th Feb 07. Glentoran 6 Larne 3 - I remember the days when the words "9 goal thriller", "Oval", & "Larne" used to mean 8-1 to the Glens! But sure at least big Al's got that shakey defence sorted out ;-) "Taxi for Morris"!
16th Feb 07. Larne game - Back to porridge then. Dunno about you lot but it seems a long time ago now since we lost to Donegal Celtic, more than just 2 weeks. Well they do say a week's a long time in football, and we'll find out tomorrow, because up until 7 days ago we were absolute sh*te! At 20 to 5 last Saturday afternoon our season looked to be all but over, then a lifeline from the Doc, a life saver from Sean Ward, and I heard Glenmen singing for the first time in nearly 2 months! A new coach in place too since then ... hope springs eternal that we're about to turn the corner. But by God it has to begin tomorrow, and last for at least 4 days, or we really can write this one off :-( Let's look at the opposition though. Five weeks ago Larne had a single win to their name and sat second-bottom of the table with a miserly 4 points from 16 games. They still sit second-bottom today of course, but have won 3 and drawn 1 of their last 4 league games, 10 points from 12, and knowing a few more wins could now lift them 4 or 5 places up the table and out of that dreaded play-off spot! They are one of the form teams in the League. Contrast that with ourselves and you'll get where I'm coming from. We've two home games in a row now - a false hope, five of the top six teams also have double home ties over the next two weeks!
We simply must collect all 3 points tomorrow just to stay in touch. However fading .... there is still a glimmer of hope.
Match Betting: Glentoran 4/11, Larne 7/1, and a draw 3/1 ... Unbelievable! All odds supplied by TOALS Bookmakers.
15th Feb 07. Halfers ... winner v Portadown was Alan Neill who won £520 with the ticket 8284, drawn by man of the moment - Sean Ward!
14th Feb 07. DOGHOUSE TICKETS - Any of you hoping to go to the GCT 'DOGHOUSE GIG' next Saturday night (24th) but still haven't got a ticket yet you'll need to get your finger out - from an initial allocation of 400 there are only 30 - odd left!! They'll be on sale from Tommy McKee's 'Halfers' hut this Saturday and from GCT Board Members - first come first served! By the way, anybody who has got tickets but hasn't paid me for them yet .... any friggin chance! ;-)
13th Feb 07. Irish League ... beat the English Conference 3-1 tonight in the representative game, Gary Hamilton opening the scoring on 6 minutes before going off at half-time :-)
Portadown Irish Cup Replay - From the Official website: Portadown FC have made 750 adult (£8) and 150 concession (£5) tickets available for next Tuesday's (20th) replay (ko 7.45pm) which will be an all-ticket game. Tickets will be on sale to Season Tickets Only before Saturday's home game (17th) against Larne. Any remaining tickets will further be on sale on Monday evening (19th) at the Oval from 5pm, to Season Tickets, and those Supporters who produce photographic ID. Supporters Club Secretaries can make Group purchases of tickets through the Club Secretary, but only on production of their members' Season Tickets details. Please note that Glentoran Supporters will be accomodated in the Stand behind the goal. There will be no terracing open for this game.
You should also note that Tickets will only be available at the Oval for this game, not at our Usual Ticket Outlets.
COMMON SENSE PREVAILS - Dugout Dilemma finally resolved ...
Donning the Red, Green & Black for One More Time ... HERE
Frank Kerr - The funeral of the late Frank Kerr will take place at 11am tomorrow (Weds) at Glenburn Methodist Church, turn into Lisnasharragh off the Knock Dual Carrigeway.
12th Feb 07. Anybody fancy a Big Mac?
"The Club's The Hub!" - Glentoran Community Trust today revealed plans to produce and fund a 'Multi-Lingual' brochure, aimed at promoting the many positives and benefits of Glentoran Football Club to the wider multi-cultural community of East Belfast ... Find out more HERE
SITTING DUCKS!!! - Just so there's no doubt ... the bottles begin to rain down on the Glentoran bench!
11th Feb 07. Frank Kerr. I'm deeply sorry to have to report this morning that Patron, and former Director of Glentoran Football Club Frank Kerr has passed away. A true gentleman and will be sorely missed around the Oval by all who knew him. Funeral details to be announced in due course.
Glentoran 2 Portadown 2 - Well where do you start with this one! What I will say from the off though is that the Glens were as up for this game yesterday as I've seen them in months (and rightly so of course), fully committed from the first whistle, exactly what the fans have been calling for. From as far back as I can remember fans at the Oval will forgive a defeat, so long as they see their team battle! I thought we did that yesterday, and bearing in mind we made 5 changes from the DC game by and large were well in the match all day. Injury victims Ryan Berry, Darren Lockhart, Jason Hill, and Gary Smyth all made a return to the team and it really seemed to make a difference. Chris Morgan partnered Gary Hamilton up front, the latter proving a real handful for his former team mates all afternoon. How Hammy didn't get the call-up against Wales the other night ahead of Thompson is beyond me, the guy is quite simply the best in the country by a proverbial mile! Anyways, all that endeavour looked to be for now't when once again we conceded an awful goal, this time just after the half-hour mark. A hopeful punt upfield from Kevin 'Pieman' caused a real mix-up on our 18 yard line, I was at the opposite end of the ground so didn't have a great view but whatever we were at the ball came loose to Ports midfielder Wesley Boyle (we should have signed him years ago) and he rolled it past Elliott Morris for the opener - the first save he'd been called on to make. Talk about a kick in the teeth! We managed to rally again though, and at the interval were still hopeful of turning it around. That was until the 52nd minute when Marc McCann fired past Morris to put Portadown 2 up. Cue the heads to drop big time. All the fight just seemed to go right out of the team as we definitely started to feel sorry for ourselves, and had we not rode our luck over the next 10 or 15 minutes could have been 4 or 5 behind and looking at an absolute tanking. But we hung in there, and when Ports striker Allan Smart lobbed Morris to see his effort come back off the crossbar Windy decided to ring the changes, bringing on Willo McDonagh, Halliday and Tim McCann. The fresh legs certainly seemed to help and with the crowd trying to rally the team on Michael Halliday headed us an absolute lifeline with just 10 minutes to go! The whole place erupted, we threw everything at the Ports, their once cheering fans now baying for the final whistle as the Glens pressed and pressed looking for the equalizer. I have to say it looked like it wasn't going to come, and when I glanced at my watch approaching 10 minutes to 5 I was almost resigned to going out of the cup. Then up pop wee Sean Ward, yet another ball was humped into the Ports penalty area, and after a frantic bout of head tennis the ball fell to Sean rushing into the box to absolutely bury it in the back of the net! Pandemonium! The whole place erupted, we had the sight of the whole coaching staff and almost every player dancing in jubilation over at the dugouts, you'd have thought we'd just won the World Cup! The referee blew up just 10 seconds after the re-start, that's how close we came to the end of our season ... would that have been the end of it ...
I have to say whoever's idea it was to put those dugouts on the far side of the ground they need their head looking at! To put our Coaching staff and substitutes right in front of, and within touching distance of the away support was absolute madness! When that equalizer went in the far side of the ground turned into a riot zone. Portadown stewards tried in vain to hold back hundreds of incensed away fans as bricks, bottles, coins, and even safety cones rained down on Paul Millar and his support staff for having the cheek to celebrate the last-minute goal. I have spoken to some caught in the thick of it, having been hit on the face and head with coins during the prolonged barrage. But it didn't end there, at the final whistle the rioting continued outside at the Mersey Street end of the ground, cars and windows damaged in the surrounding streets and on the Sydenham bypass before police could gain control of the situation. Now I know the dugouts were moved in a bid to improve restricted views from the bottom deck of the main stand last week, after the new 'Family Enclosure' was built, but for the love of God, did they learn nothing from 'Morgan Day'? What on earth did they think was going to happen at the first opportunity! Had they stayed this side of the pitch none of that yesterday would have happened. Thank God no-one was very seriously injured, but FFS get those dugouts back over this side of the ground before somebody gets killed!
Yet to be confirmed, but I hear the replay will be at the Shambles Tuesday 20th, with the winners facing the unenviable task of travelling to Cliftonville on March 3rd in the Quarter-Finals. Our season ain't over yet ... but we came mighty close!
Full Draw: Ballymena United v Linfield, Cliftonville v Glentoran/Portadown, Dungannon Swifts v Armagh City & Lis Distillery v Crusaders
9th Feb 07. GLENTORAN COMMUNITY TRUST RECLAIM THE CLUB'S EUROPEAN FOOTBALL ARCHIVE !!
"European Dream" DVD to be released in the Spring ... read more HERE
Portadown game - Don't think there's much more I can say about this game that hasn't already folks, and for what it's worth I'm firmly placed in the "If we don't win this one our season's as good as over" camp. Sorry for all the doom and gloom ... this months supply of healthy optimism was used up last week :-(
8th Feb 07. Irish Cup Betting: Glentoran 6/4, Portadown 7/4, and a draw 2/1. All odds supplied by TOAL bookmakers.
7th Feb 07. Premier League Betting latest: Linfield 1/3, Portadown 7/1, Glentoran 8/1, & Cliftonville 9/1. Odds from TOALS
6th Feb 07. "AND THIS TIME I'LL BURY IT !!" Warren Feeney, as he signs up for the 'Juventus 11' at the GCT Ormeau Park Festival! Click on the GCT banner above for more ...
5th Feb 07. Form guide for the last 7 league games ...
4th Feb 07. Apology - Donegal Celtic 1 Glentoran 0 ... This website, under my stewardship, has over the last 7 years always been open and honest where opinion on ALL things Glentoran are concerned, I've always believed you should 'say what you see'. I've enjoyed the odd pat on the back from some of you on the terraces for being so forthright, but more often than not my style has also landed me in hot water with the establishment. I want to apologise today, from the heart, to ALL you genuine Glentoran supporters for the unusually mellow tone I have adopted here on the front page over the last few weeks or so. I have betrayed not only you but myself. I am a Glentoran fanatic, I've missed but a handful of Glentoran games over the last 30 years and have watched this current team all season. I've seen the good and the bad down on the pitch just like the rest of you, formed my own opinion, but by and large this year have kept it to myself. I foolishly thought that if I played down the many shortcomings in this current team it might in some way encourage a 'sense of pride' response, naively thinking that at this critical stage in our season the last thing the players needed to read on a Glentoran website was yet more harsh criticism ... Well **** that!
That display I witnessed yesterday has to rank up there as one of the most inept and gutless performances I've ever seen from a Glentoran team. I've seen some wooden ones in my time believe me, but I am absolutely lost for words to describe this latest collection. On a day when we desperately needed a rally from our team to give us some hope of salvaging our faultering season, we were served up a helping of pathetic, clueless, heartless, shapeless football from as big a bunch of couldn't-care-less complete and utter misfits as I've ever seen. They're not worthy of donning that famous green jersey, half of them shouldn't be allowed back through the Oval gates after that latest load'a shite. But the sadest bit of all is it's only the tip of a very large iceberg, quite frankly the whole club is in a ******* shambles, and make no mistake, this current footballing circus is a direct consequence. I said it at the last Glentoran AGM, if we don't qualify for Europe this club could be looking at a wind-up order in less than a year. Or maybe that suits.
Glentoran Football Club died when we were conned into re-mortgaging the Oval!
I say play the Seconds next week against Portadown in the Irish Cup, at least when we go out of the competition it'll be with a wee bit of self respect!
2nd Feb 02. Ballymac have today increased our bus capacity to Donegal Celtic, there'll be plenty of room now for anyone who wishes to travel to the game with us. Just turn up at Wilgar Street before the 2.00pm departure time.
'G' Force for the GCT Festival !! Gary MacCartney, just voted by you as the 6th 'greatest ever' Glentoran player in the GCT Mural poll, is the latest to agree to play for the 1980/81 'Unbeatables' side versus the 1977 'Juventus 11' in the GCT Ormeau Park Festival! 28 players have now agreed to take part in the 'Legends' game. Full details HERE
Donegal Celtic game - A Spade is a Spade, there I called it. If we can't win this one we might as well wrap it friggin up, for God's sake Donegal Celtic have only won two games in the whole League campaign ... and one of those was 5 months ago in the opening bloody match! Three times we've played DC already this season, winning 3-1 (away) and 5-0 (home) in the League Cup, but then playing out an awful 1-1 draw at the Oval a month later in the League - the first seeds of doubt. Tomorrow marks the last game before we enter the final third of the Title chase, just 10 games left after this one, and 5 of those against the teams making up the rest of the top six! Personally I believe it's all still there to play for, I know we've been absolute kak, but at odds of 4/1 definitely the best bet of the bunch. But we desperately need to find a bit of form fast, or our season could be all but over in a fortnight. I'm told new signing Michael Ward has kept himself fit, so if he's half the player I remember when he was at Omagh he has to feature at some stage tomorrow. There's not that much room on the Celtic pitch from what I remember and I think that also suits us, you only have to look at the hack of us on the wide open spaces of the Oval to work that one out! No, I'm fairly confident tomorrow will stop the rot ... let's just hope the run lasts longer than one game this time! Betting: Donegal Celtic 4/1, Glentoran 8/13, and a draw 5/2. All odds supplied by TOALS.
1st Feb 07. Transfer Window's shut by the way ... that's it. No more out, no more in - lock and load!
OLDER NEWS ... Jan 07 |Dec 06 | Nov 06 | Oct 06 | Sep 06 | Aug 06 |.Jul 06 | Jun 06 | Season 05/06 | 04/05 | 03/04 | 02/03
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Distillery
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Crusaders
Armagh City
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GLENTORAN
Loughgall
7 7 0 0 16 7 21 +9
7 4 2 1 13 7 14 +6
7 4 3 0 13 5 15 +8
6 3 3 0 11 4 12 +7
7 3 1 3 12 12 10
7 3 1 3 9 9 10
7 3 1 3 12 14 10 -2
7 3 1 5 11 13 10 -2
7 2 3 2 9 10 9 -1
7 2 2 3 10 10 8
6 2 2 2 10 10 8
7 2 2 3 11 14 8 -3
7 2 0 5 9 21 6 -12
7 1 2 4 11 14 5 -3
7 1 1 5 14 12 4 +2
7 0 2 5 5 15 2 -10
Premier League Table 26-12-06 - 03-02-07
P W D L F A Pts gd
Full League Table available HERE
Tweet! Tweet! That wee bird of mine's been at it again ;-)
Don't be surprised if former QPR and Northern Ireland defender Alan MacDonald is appointed to the coaching staff of Glentoran Football Club! I hear he's been offered a position and all being well an announcement is expected later this week! Ya heard it here first. No Bull .... & Not much Blue!
**UPDATE, 5pm: Alan MacDonald has been confirmed 1st Team Coach at the Oval :-)
Alan was in the running for the Glentoran Managers job back in February last year when Coyler jacked it in, but opted instead to take up the assistant's post to Gary Waddock, who had been appointed caretaker boss at QPR after Ian Holloway was put on 'gardening leave'. Alan parted company with QPR around September of last year after a run of poor results for the Shepherd's Bush club, but is currently still involved in a coaching capacity with the Northern Ireland U21 team.
