30th June 04. Two rumours ... Firstly the one on the BBC Sport website today, that Tim McCann (the original) may be on his way out of the Oval. Well I can tell you that one's been doing the rounds from further back than when I told you about Darren Armour gettin tapped! Any queries I raised then with those in the know drew a cursory 'dunno', although I do believe Tim's contract is up around Christmas. Coyler's not back from holidays till tomorrow and nothing is gonna happen without him around, so it's wait and see. Second rumour surrounds Andy Smith. The players have been back to 4 nights a week training lately down at the Oval, but this week our Andy's been among the missing. My wee bird tells me he's at Milton Keynes trying to impress, and if so an official parting of the waves with the Glens is imminent - possibly even today!
28th June 04. Game switch - Sorry folks, been away the weekend. It looks as though the UEFA Cup ties with Allianssi are indeed going to be switched. Permission has been given by the IFA, and UEFA have given the Glens the nod, but unfortunately until all the paperwork arrives at the Oval it's still not 100%. I'm booking our trip regardless ... cya there :-)
26th June 04. Wanna work Saturdays :-) Glentoran FC are looking for new Safety Stewards for the forthcoming season. Safety Officer Noel Nicholl explains, "We need to have a core of Stewards for each game, and we require a number of extra people for the new season. Males and females over 18 years of age and who are free to attend most matches home and away, are welcome to apply - training will be given" Anyone interested should contact Noel at The Oval directly, post in their details and a contact phone number, or email him at safetyofficer@glentoran.net
25th June 04, 1.30pm. Glens back to the same stadium!! Allianssi of Finland!!
UEFA Draw - News of our draw on here and to the site's mailing list immediately it comes out of the hat, expect to know around 1.30 this afternoon.
24th June 04, 11.00am. Bus to Europe? - Longford Town have now also been seeded in our 'Northern' region of the UEFA Cup draw, along with Bohemians that now gives us a 1 in 5 chance of going down south!
Paul Kirk, 'We want Armour' ... Officially! - Told ya didn't I, the local press now claim Distillery manager Paul Kirk has officially contacted to the Glens, in his desire to bring Darren Armour back to Ballyskeagh.
23rd June 04. UEFA Cup list complete - Ukraine's fair-play winners Illichivets Mariupol are the final seeds to be added ... bloody marvellous - Do svi danya! (I also hear our regional shortlist won't be finalised till tomorrow at the earliest)
22nd June 04. You'll be saddened to learn of the death of one of Glentoran's most ardent fans, one who also made regular and sizeable financial contributions to his beloved Glens. John Gourley, who through his chemist shop on the Holywood Rd frequently advertised pitch-side and in the match programme, and generously sponsored match balls etc, sadly passed away on Saturday after a short illness. I am sure we would all like to send our sincere condolences to his wife and family circle. He will be sadly missed by his many friends at the Oval.
21st June 04. Wimbledon game OFF! - The Glens will now not after all be playing Wimbledon on July 24th. Don't panic though if you've already booked your flights ... the game will now be against 'Milton Keynes Dons FC', the former South London club have just been officially re-named!
20th June 04. Ballymena draw - Congratulations to Ballymena United, after holding Odense of Denmark to a 0-0 draw in their away leg in the Interdodo Cup.
16th June 04. New player for the Oval - The Glens have moved to sign former Man City and Wrexham left back Shaun Holmes on a 3 year deal. Yeah I know, just what I thought .... Shaun who?
14th June 04. UEFA Cup - More speculation on the UEFA Cup draw. It seems there may have to be a bit of 'mix and match' between the 3 regionalized groups I mentioned, Northern, Southern Mediterranean, and Central - East. The 'Northern' region actually has more unseeded teams in it than seeded teams, which will either mean exporting some of the 'unseeds', possibly us, or importing a couple of seeds from another region into ours... and the country being tipped is Belorussia!!!
13th June 04. Quote of the day ... ITV commentator Clive Tyldesley, 'French manager Santini is gonna have to listen to one-nil, one-nil, in every football ground in the Premier League when he comes to manage Spurs next season .... OOOPS!'
12th June 04. Update ... It's just been released on the official site - McGibbon has signed on at the Oval for 3 years.
11th June 04. McGibbon finally signs - Portadown defender Pat McGibbon has just completed his much expected move to the Oval. Former Man Utd player McGibbon, who was in the Northern Ireland squad up to the end of season 2001/02, made 7 International appearances during his time at Man United and Wigan, where he arrived on loan from United in March 1997. He eventually signed for the Latics for £250,000, but after 4 years had a transfer request granted by the club in September 2001. He then signed for Scunthorpe United on a months loan and made his debut with 'man in the news' Peter Beagrie. He made 6 appearances for the club, in which they never lost a game, but returned to Wigan after failing to agree personal terms and stayed there until the end of season 2001/02 scoring 12 goals. In 2002 he signed a short-term contract for Tranmere Rovers on a free, but after just 4 games moved back to Portadown where it all started some 10 years before. At time of writing I'm not sure how long a contract he's signed at the Oval. Born in Lurgan, the 6ft 2in / 13 stone defender will be 31 years old in September.
UEFA Cup regionalised - The draw for the UEFA Cup is being split into 3 regions. Although yet to be confirmed, my information is that Glentoran and Portadown will be placed in the 'Northern' region, which includes - Belgium, Denmark, Rep of Ireland, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Northern Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales. Basically what that means if true, is that given we already know the teams that are seeded for the first qualifying round, the Glens will be off to either Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden, Rep of Ireland or back to Finland! You can get those shorts & shades back outta that suitcase! See the UEFA link above for more.
Spare a thought ... for poor old Glenavon. When the Glens season kicks off on August 14th with the CIS League Cup, Glenavon supporters can look forward to their heroes lining up in the Daily Mirror Trophy, against Ballinamallard, Donegal Celtic, Oxford United Stars, Tobermore United and Wakehurst!
10th June 04. Big Smicker signs for Ballymena - As if it wasn't bad enough we let Gary Smyth go, in my opinion it has just gotten worse, as the big lad signs a 2 year deal at Ballymena Utd. He even scored for them the other night! Personally I reckon Ballymena will be one of the teams challenging for the Title next season, bearing in mind they'll want to improve on their baptism last year when they only finished 3 points behind us! Bad day all round ... I wish he'd went to Ards :-(
9th June 04. EURO 2004 NEWS - OK folks, I've decided to install a football news 'ticker' above for the duration of Portugal Euro 2004. You'll now be able to access all the latest news from the competition right here at BallymacGSC.com, simply click on your chosen article to view ... enjoy :-) Note - you must have the javascript plugin installed on your PC to view the ticker.
8th June 04. UEFA list completed - Teams from Sweden, Belorussia and Ukraine have now joined the seeded list for our 1st Qualifying Round UEFA Cup draw on June 25th, with only the Ukranian Fair Play Winners unknown.
7th June 04, 12.30am. RESULT ... Trinidad and Tobago 0 Norn Iron 3 - David Healy again and our very own Stuarty Elliott making it 2-0 at half time! Healy got the third, and his second midway through the second half, following a flick-on header by substitute Andy Smith.
6th June 04. Nistru Otachi ... have just won the Moldovan Cup, and Otelul Galati have finished runners-up in the League in Romania. Both teams now join the seeds in our UEFA Cup draw.
Trinidad and Tobago ... God things are bad when you have to play two teams! Anyway last chance for Andy Smith to get on the score sheet against so-called Micky Mouse opposition. I say so-called coz these lot are actually ranked 75th in the world, some 39 places above wee Norn Iron (of course that was before Scotland tanked them 4-1 last week :-) KO for this one is a bit earlier, 10pm UK time, so you might even get to know the result before beddie-byes ... reassuring isn't it :-)
3rd June 04. AEK Larnaca ... have just won the National Cup in Cyprus and go into the UEFA Cup hat to face the Glens. Ok I'm goin, you've talked me into it :-)
St Kitts & Nevis 0 Norn Iron 2 ... and no, Andy didn't get one. In fact it took a goal from each of the two subs in the last ten minutes to break down the islanders in the end, David Healy (again) and Steve Jones! I suppose a win's a win :-(
2nd June 04. Norn Iron v St Kitts & Nevis - Match number 2 in Andy Smith's quest for a sun tan. Difficult as it may be, Lawrie Sanchez has now actually managed to find a team ranked BELOW Northern Ireland to play, St Kitts & Nevis sitting 120th in the World compared to our 114th! And just to show the new Manager's not intimidated, he's starting with an all Irish League partnership up front, our Andy and Portadown's Gary Hamilton! Stuarty Elliott has also made the line-up, and kick-off once again for all you night-owls is midnight UK time. (Much as it's very tempting, think I'll just wait till the morning)
1st June 04. Who's next? - You tell me? But I certainly CAN tell you, that Darren Armour (who's contract I believe is almost up at the Oval) has DEFINITELY been approached by at least one other Premier Division side - legally or not!
