Following the sad passing of Trevor Thompson, Glentoran Football Club’s all-time leading goalscorer, we reflect on his remarkable life and career through his own words.
In 2000, Trevor sat down with John Moore for an in-depth interview in the Glentoran Gazette. It beautifully captured his wit, humility, and enduring love for the club.
As a tribute, we are proud to republish the article. Trevor’s insights offer a wonderful glimpse into the life of a true Glentoran legend.

Didn’t you used to be… Trevor Thompson? (Part 1)

What are your earliest football memories?
I can remember my father taking me along to Solitude to watch Cliftonville as a boy. The interest stemmed from a local man called Herbie Hegarty who was playing for the Reds at that time. On the playing front, my first organised football came in primary school.
I attended Glengormley PE School where none of the staff seemed to be keen on organising football. Fortunately, the headmaster of another school in the area, a man called Jack Miles who was in charge of St Mary’s on the Hill, brought the boys from both schools together to form a team.

Where did you progress to from there?
The next step was playing for my Boys’ Brigade Company, the 99th Belfast Co – now known as 3rd Newtownabbey – where I stayed until leaving school aged 14. There was a gap then of about a year when I didn’t play football at all, but I resumed with Whiteabbey Pres in the Churches League and then moved on to Mossley YM.
My father worked along with Harry Cavan and through him I was asked to join Ards. I think I played one game for the reserves before packing it in. I would have been about 16 at the time and it was very difficult to get from my home to Castlereagh Park for training.
Having said that, my next club turned out to be Derry City! I’d been training at Brantwood’s ground in Skegoneil Avenue along with Derry’s Belfast-based players and was invited to sign for them, but again after a few reserve games I returned to Mossley YM.

Did you always play as a centre forward?
No, I played half-back at school and as goalkeeper for the BB. My time at Whiteabbey Pres and Mossley was spent as a defender. During that second spell at Mossley I offered to fill the centre forward position for one match and things took off from there.

How did your move to Glentoran come about?
Ned Dubois, a friend of mine who’d played in both my primary school and BB teams, was in the Glentoran team at that time. He recommended me to Freddie Steadman, Glentoran’s chief scout, who watched me a few times before asking me to sign. I arrived at the Oval in 1956 and went into the Seconds team, managed by Sammy Ewing.

When did you make your debut for the first team?
My Glentoran debut was on 16th October 1956, in an Ulster Cup game against Distillery at Grosvenor Park. It ended 2-2.

Did you manage to score on your debut?
No. My first goal for the club was scored at the Oval against Ballymena United (11-3-57). We won 7-2 and I managed to score four, including a first-half hat-trick. After that game, I retained my place for the rest of the season and ended up winning both City Cup and Co Antrim Shield medals.

What other medals did you pick up during your 12 seasons at the Oval?
I won two League Championships in 1963-64 and 1966-67, one Irish Cup, beating Linfield 2-0 in the 1966 final, Ulster, City and Gold Cups and the Co Antrim Shield all at least once. Unfortunately, I’ve been a runner-up on plenty of occasions too, including a North/South final… the only award that eluded me.

You also won the Ulster Footballer of the Year award.
Yes, I picked up that award in 1964, a tremendous season for me personally and indeed for Glentoran who won the Irish League Championship.

Who was the best player you played alongside?
Without doubt, the best I played with at the Oval was Walter Bruce. However, I was also privileged on one occasion to play with the man I regard as the best player ever, George Best.

And who would you regard as your toughest opponent?
Perhaps ‘toughest’ wouldn’t be the right word to use. The players I faced whom I had the greatest respect for were Sammy Hatton and Tommy ‘Bun’ Hamill, both of course Linfield defenders.

As well as being a great goalscorer, it has been said that you missed a few as well. Did any of them prove costly?
As a footballer, particularly a forward, you won’t score a goal if you don’t shoot. I suppose people will be able to recall times when I missed what they regarded as a sitter, but I’m happy with my record. I don’t remember ever thinking that a chance I’d missed had cost us a game, but there were plenty I scored which meant the result went our way.

In part two of this interview (v Crusaders, 6th Jan 2001), Trevor talks about some of the many goals he scored for Glentoran, the managers he played under, the European nights, the Detroit Cougars, and the game which he says changed the history of Glentoran Football Club.

Didn’t you used to be… Trevor Thompson? (Part 2)

How many managers did you play under during your Glentoran career?
I can’t remember the exact number but I’m sure it was double figures. In my 12 playing seasons with the club that works out as almost one a season! In football, as in business, too many changes at board or management level cause so much disruption that success is virtually impossible to achieve. In my opinion, that is why Glentoran had such a barren spell during the ’50s and early ’60s.

Which manager would you rate the best?
For sheer achievement, it would be John Colrain, but really the success that he had was the culmination of a lot of work carried out by many people over the previous four or five years. Harry Walker had brought a lot of new players to the Oval in the early ’60s, and that was followed by Isaac McDowell, Gibby McKenzie, and Billy Neill making their mark on the team. Colrain just seemed to knit the whole thing together.

John Colrain’s arrival at the Oval wasn’t the first time your paths had crossed though?
That’s right. I’d actually played against him in a representative match back in 1957. I was representing the Irish League ‘B’ Division in a game against the Scottish Central League (6-4-57). John, who was playing for Duntocher at the time, was in the Scottish side.

What do you regard as your best game for Glentoran?
4th April 1964 against Linfield at Windsor Park when we beat the Blues 8-1. We went a goal down early on, but I grabbed the equaliser, Sammy Hatton scored an own goal, and Sammy Pavis scored to give us a 3-1 lead at half-time. I got my second and Glentoran’s fourth just after the break, Tommy Brannigan got the fifth, and the sixth gave me my hat-trick. Gerry Green got number seven and I finished the scoring with number eight. I almost scored five that day but was denied by the crossbar! The only disappointing thing about that day was that Billy Neill wasn’t there to witness it. Billy had gone on a trip to Blackpool with one of the supporters’ clubs and missed the game.

Was it the four goals which made this game so special for you?
Naturally, I was pleased to score four goals in one game, especially against Linfield at Windsor Park, but for me, this game was the turning point for Glentoran; it was so central to everything that was to unfold over the next four years. We hadn’t beaten Linfield at Windsor for 17 years, so this result was remarkable. It also meant that we went from also-rans to League Champions in the space of a month! I suppose it gave us all a belief in ourselves and we went on to greater things over the coming seasons.

Of the 375, is there one goal that you would describe as the best you scored?
Not really. Two goals that come immediately to mind were both scored at Windsor Park but you couldn’t describe either of them as special. The first was my opening goal in that 8-1 win when Iain McFall caught the ball and I put him and the ball into the net… something you’d probably be sent off for nowadays!
The other one was against Coleraine in a cup semi-final. We were awarded a penalty and since various players had missed quite a few during that season it had come round to my turn to take the next one. Forget about placing your kick or anything like that, I ‘blootered’ it and Vic Hunter, the Coleraine goalkeeper, had no chance!

What were your best and worst moments in football?
For me, the worst moments of my career were losing two Irish Cup finals. Both times, against Derry City (1964) and Crusaders (1967), Glentoran were firm favourites to lift the cup but it wasn’t to be. The best time was undoubtedly the Cougars trip. Travelling to the States, staying in the best hotels, and playing against some top sides; it was a wonderful experience.

What special memories have you of that trip?
It was great not only to play against some of the world’s top players but also to score a few goals. I managed three, two against the Washington Whips (Aberdeen) and one against Los Angeles Wolves (Wolverhampton Wanderers).
The game which stood out though was the infamous meeting with the Houston Stars (Bangu of Brazil). Both the temperature and the humidity were very high and at half-time John Colrain decided to make two substitutions, myself and Eric Ross going off. The changing facilities were outside the stadium and by the time we’d showered and changed, the riot had started on the pitch. We weren’t allowed back in for a while and had to view the action through the crowd. During the fracas, I witnessed one of the funniest events of the trip.
John Kennedy (our guest goalkeeper) chased their big black centre-forward around the pitch. The big Brazilian was terrified that John was going to hit him, but when he finally stumbled, John just stood over him wagging his finger… it was hilarious!

You were also involved in Glentoran’s first European games. What were they like?
I think I played in 10 European games in all, scoring four goals. My first experience of European football was the games against Real Zaragoza in 1962. It was a different type of game to what we’d been used to and we lost both legs of the tie, but we learnt from that experience and a couple of years later we gave what I regard as one of our best European performances against Panathinaikos. Having drawn the first game 2-2 at the Oval, we went down 3-2 in Athens. My lasting memories of that particular game were the performance of Billy McCullough, who was outstanding, and of the referee who made some very poor decisions which I felt cost us the game.
I also enjoyed our tussles with Rangers. Again we performed magnificently at the Oval, earning a 1-1 draw, but we were perhaps a bit overawed playing in the return game at Ibrox. My final match for the Glens in Europe was the home game against Benfica. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make the trip to Lisbon due to work commitments. As I was approaching the end of my playing days I felt I couldn’t really afford to take any more time off work and with the game coming so soon after the Cougars trip I decided that I had to safeguard my future career.

What was your last game for Glentoran?
My last senior game for the Glens was appropriately against the Blues in the final of the Co Antrim Shield. I scored twice as we drew 3-3 and then I scored one in the replay which Glentoran won 3-0. I think that if you looked at my whole career with Glentoran you would probably find that I scored more goals against Linfield than against any other team.

This interview, originally published in the Glentoran Gazette in 2000, stands as a treasured record of a man whose name will forever be part of Glentoran history.