Many thanks to the Glentoran Supporters Committee (1923) for use of this article by Roy Downes on changes in the Glentoran matchday experience through the years.
Checking the Glentoran website on December 12th I read, “In a new first for Glentoran Football Club, tickets for Saturday's game against Crusaders are now available ONLINE”. Entering via the turnstiles, one could be excused for thinking that this grand old stadium hasn't changed over the last fifty or sixty years. Not so! It got me thinking about the changes that I have witnessed since, following a family tradition, I first came to a Glentoran game circa 1960. Some readers will remember all of them, some, a few and younger supporters none of them.
Lift Me Over Mister!
Used the first time I gained entry to the Oval. A blind eye was turned to an adult lifting a young lad over the turnstile, enabling him to watch amatch without having to pay. Popular with all schoolboys in the 50s and 60s. It worked for a few seasons until following one request too many, back came the reply, “Do you not think you should be lifting me over, son?”. Not practical nowadays as most grounds have full height turnstiles.
Season Tickets
It was time to buy a boy’s season ticket. It meant a walk up to the Secretary's Office where in exchange for my 12s 6d (62½p) I was handed a boy’s ticket which was nothing like the season tickets we buy today. It resembled a book of about 30 cloakroom tickets. Each numbered ticket was perforated, and so came in two numbered halves. One half allowed entry into the ground and the other half was for entry to the grandstand. Glentoran had their own Commissionaire, a Sgt. James Crossen, I believe, a member of the 1923 Committee, who collected the first part of the ticket to enter the ground.
Autographs
When I first began following the Glens I wouldn't have gone without my autograph book. Back then there was just a wall around the playing area, not the fence that sits on top of it today. No problem then, climbing over the wall and collecting autographs of players as they warmed up. Back then one could actually make out the signature! Nowadays I see players put their shirt number after their squiggle, signatures more like what we get on a doctor's prescription! Don't know what became of my autograph book.
Players’ Shirts
I can remember in the early 60s writing to the Glentoran Secretary asking if it would be at all possible to get a player's shirt at the end of the season. Fair play to him, he replied to my letter. However he explained that when the first team players had worn their shirts for a few seasons, they were passed on to the second eleven and after they had finished with them, they were in a terrible state. How things have changed! Replica shirts are available to buy in the Glentoran shop, and for £150 a supporter can sponsor a player's match -worn shirt and have it presented at the end of the season.
Albert Finlay and a young fan
Glentoran Shop
Surely one of the best club shops in the Irish Premiership. The place to go to for your new season replica shirt. Friendly staff are there to help you out with your correct size. Not only that, but there is a wide selection of other Glentoran souvenirs. Everything from a wristband to a tracksuit. A popular visiting point for fans and 'ground-hoppers' alike. No such thing in the early 60s. It was a case of your mother or granny knitting you a green, red and black scarf. If there were no knitters in the family, then the alternative was to buy an RUC scarf – green, red & black! Then in the mid-60s the club sold Glentoran ties to supporters. I no longer have my tie but I do have my RUC/Glentoran scarf.
Floodlighting
Glentoran's first two ventures into European football, Real Zaragoza and Partick Thistle, proved to be unsuccessful from a financial point of view, the main reason being lack of floodlights, forcing the club to play both home ties with afternoon kick-offs. The only clubs at the time with floodlights were Linfield and Distillery. Then in July 1964 it was announced that a new £12,000 floodlighting system was to be installed at the Oval for the start of the new season. Only one pylon would have to be erected. The remaining lights were to be clustered on the two stands, similar to Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow. The pylon came courtesy of RAF Aldergrove. It was planned to use the lights at Glentoran's European Cup tie against Panathanaikos on September 16th. However the Greeks requested that the match should NOT be played under floodlights as they were unaccustomed to lights and would prefer a 6.15 pm. kick-off! Glentoran refused. The Glentoran secretary Albert Smith was inundated with ticket requests and Glentoran played out a 2 -2 draw with Panathanaikos before a crowd of 25,000. Gate receipts at the afternoon match with Real Zaragoza had been £900 and Glentoran's floodlit game brought in receipts of £3300!
The original Oval floodlights
Seating
My earliest memory of seating at the Oval consisted of a mixture of wooden seats close to the directors’ box and a greater number of bench type seats in the upper deck of the main grandstand. Underneath the main grandstand there were no seats at all. It was purely tiered terracing with crush barriers, similar to those around the rest of the ground. The unreserved stand was similarly finished, with no seating whatsoever. In May 1966 Glentoran erected 1150 seats underneath the reserve stand for the Irish Cup final against Linfield. Improvements over the years have meant tip -up seats available in both the reserved and unreserved (railway) sections of the ground. However Health and Safety restrictions have meant that the Oval I stood in, with approximately 50,000 others, has now a capacity of 6,050 - a decision once described by a well-known Irish Premiership manager as 'murdering local football'. In addition segregation was brought in for home and away supporters.
Glentoran Gazette
No visit to the Oval would be complete without purchasing Northern Ireland's premier football programme. “Too many programmes of Irish League clubs are nothing more than advertising sheets in which even the teams are not listed accurately. The Glentoran Gazette is an exception. It always has something to say, with comments often hard-hitting and constructive. In other words it's a “good read” before a game”. Not my words, but those of the late Malcolm Brodie almost fifty years ago. Last May the Gazette was voted the best Northern Ireland football programme for the 19th consecutive year by the NIFPCC members. But why, you might ask, have I included it? When I first purchased it in the early 60s it had a number printed on the front of the programme. A winning number was picked, and a young boy would make his way around the perimeter of the pitch holding aloft the winning number. To the best of my knowledge the winner received either a monetary prize or a bottle of McKibbin's Rum. Whatever happened to him? Does he still support the Glens? I never did win!
