On a beautiful warm sunny Sunday morning at Wilgar Park, Dundela opened its facilities to welcome the six sides that would compete for the Jimmy Black Memorial Challenge Cup, a 7 a side tournament in aid of Pancreatic Cancer Support.
Teams taking part were two from the Spirit of 82 NI Supporters’ Club, NI Fans XI, PSNI XI, Northern Ireland Masters and our own Glentoran Legends.
Taking part for the Legends was a talented squad plus a couple of guests. In goal was former Bangor keeper, Tony Miskelly and in front of him were Tommy Leeman, who was captain for the day, and Mark Glendinning, ably backed up in midfield by Andy Mathieson, Darren Parker and Paul Leeman.
The forwards were Marty Hunter, Rory Hamill and guest player and lifelong Glenman Ryan Gregg. Adding to the squad was another Glenman living the dream, Andrew Veighey, who stepped in at the last minute when Jason Hill pulled out with a groin strain. To his credit Jason still came over to cheer on the lads, as too did Gary Macartney and Roy Walsh.
Match One saw the Legends in a tricky opener against the PSNI Select side , including a few guys with Irish League experience such as Geoff Ferris of Glenavon. In a tight game in burning heat , the PSNI made things hard for the Legends by packing their defence and trying to hit us on the break. Try as they might the Legends could not break the rear-guard action, with the PSNI keeper having a “blinder”.
At half time, a slight shuffle of the pack for the Legends brought a breakthrough at last when Andy Mathieson rolled back the years to take up a forward role. It worked to a treat, with Andy netting from close range after the keeper spilled the ball.
With time running out, the Legends began to stretch their opponents and almost on the final whistle it was 2-0 when Ryan Gregg nipped in at the back post to force home a Mark Glendinning cross.
Match Two saw the Legends up against the Spirit Of 82 B side, but don’t let the fact that they were a B team fool anyone, this was a much younger side and pushed the Legends all the way. We knew that a win would be enough to get us into the final, but it took until late into the second half before the breakthrough finally came through Darren Parker. Although the Legends continued to push forward at every opportunity , we knew the main thing was not to concede as a win was all we needed. Thankfully it proved enough and the Legends were able to look forward to a place in the final against the Northern Ireland Masters who were strongly fancied after easing through their group.
After enjoying a break out of the sun and a fresh set of shirts, the Legends took to the pitch for the final boosted by the arrival of Rory Hamill who had been working and had arrived in the middle of our second game. Our initial line up for the final was a strong one - Miskelly, Glendinning, T Leeman, Parker, P Leeman, Hamill, Hunter. On the bench were Mathieson, Veighey and Gregg.
From the off it was always going to be a hard one, but everyone stuck to their tasks, with even Mark Glendinning keeping a defensive head on and limiting his marauds forward. Chances fell to Hunter, Leeman and Parker but each came to nothing. Our new arrival, Rory Hamill was causing a lot of dismay in the masters’ defence, his fresh legs and abundance of tricks being a constant thorn in their side. With no goal for either side the mood in the Legends camp was positive at half time so no changes were made. The second half was much the same as the first with the Masters seemingly content to play deep and try to hit us on the break, which never happened. After five minutes of the second half we made a change, Andy Mathieson in for the tiring but terrific Tommy Leeman, a real captain’s performance. Andy would play a bit further forward with Darren Parker dropping back alongside Mark Glendinning. Within a minute we were forced into a second change, Marty Hunter, who had run himself into the ground coming off to be replaced by Ryan Gregg.
Suddenly we had a wee bit more pace about us and Rory Hamill burst clear from midfield but was forced wide. Nevertheless Rory somehow managed to get to the bye-line and hammer a superb ball across the face of the goal. Sadly it wasn’t met by a Legends boot , however it was a prelude to the Legends’ match winner with two minutes left .
In an almost similar move Gregg and Hamill played a one- two on the half way line before Hamill set off on another strong run. Yet again he made his way to the bye-line and, as he had done moments before, smashed a cross-shot low and hard across the front of the goal. Learning from before Ryan Gregg had made his way to the back post and stuck out a leg to meet the ball and turn the it high into the Masters’ net. It was no more than the Legends deserved and a real goal of quality.
With a minute left Andrew Veighey swopped places with Darren Parker, so that everybody got the chance to play in the final. Sometimes there is room for a wee bit of sentiment in football.
Hamill very nearly made it 2-0 right on the final whistle but his shot went just wide and soon after the ref blew the final whistle. The Legends had won but the real winner on the day would be the Pancreatic Cancer Fund which would benefit from all the fundraising on the day.
All in all a terrific day which was a credit to the organisers. For now though the Legends look forward to seeing the Jimmy Black Memorial Cup taking pride of place in the club room of our proud sponsors the Glentoran Supporters Committee (1923), until hopefully we can come back next year to defend the trophy.
Philip Stevenson