An incredible total of 1435 Glentoran appearances, 375 Glentoran goals and 47 winners medals for Glentoran got together this week when fellow club legends and league and cup winning Glens skippers Jim Cleary and Barney Bowers visited the Flying Angel Johnny Jameson this week to present him with his new membership card for the Glentoran 250 Club. Johnny was unable to make the recent presentation ceremony at the Bet McLean Oval.
Johnny – a lifelong Glenman from Rathcoole – was signed for the Glens by Ronnie McFall from Linfield in the summer of 1980. He went straight into the starting line up of the Glens team that created history that season by winning the league undefeated, the Glentoran Invincibles. The following season he, along with Jim Cleary, was a member of the Northern Ireland squad at the 1982 World Cup in Spain.
In 14 seasons with the club Jamie made 498 appearances – ninth highest in the history of the club – and scored 123 goals. The most famous of these were his 2 in the replay of the 1983 Irish Cup Final v Linfield, a 2-1 win for the Glens, and his wonder strike at the Oval v Paris St Germain in the following season’s European Cup Winners’ Cup. He has 19 winners medals with the Glens from his 13 seasons at the club, a feat only exceeded by Colin Nixon and Alan Paterson in modern times. Johnny actually won at least one winner’s medal in each of his first 12 seasons with Glentoran. Jimmy won medals in each of his 9 seasons here and Barney won them in 9 of his first 11 seasons as a Glentoran player, missing out on the other 2 seasons’ medals due to broken legs.
Three Glentoran legends, and still Glenmen to the core.
