Prior to Saturday’s opening match with Cliftonville, the club will pay a sincere and appropriate tribute to our former striker and 250 Club member Ron Manley, who sadly died in June.
Over the summer a number of volunteers, including many of the first team squad, worked tirelessly to convert the former pool room at the back of the Premier Lounge. That room will now become a players’ lounge where the players can meet to prepare pre match and relax and unwind post match. There was unanimous support from the squad for the new lounge to be named after Ron, an idea originally proposed by captain, Marcus Kane.
“The Ron Manley Suite” will be officially opened at 1.30pm on Saturday. The opening will be attended by members of Ron’s close family, some of his legendary former team mates and also representatives of Cliftonville FC where Ron finished his playing career.
The Board of Directors would like to thank the following volunteers for the time and effort they selflessly devoted over the summer to convert the room (which has not been used for a number of years) into a suite worthy of Ron’s memory as both legendary player and loyal supporter.
Ruth McCreery (Glentoran Superstore), Jodie Killops and Alistair Fulton (Glentoran Milk Bar), Corey and Curtis Harvey (Glentoran Premier Lounge), David Stewart (who provided and installed the new counter top), Harry Hawkins (for the plumbing), Stephen Reid (who fixed the electrics),Edmund Barron (for the toasters and kettles) and the following players who worked to decorate the room among other things – Marcus Kane, Ross Redman, Steven Gordon, James Ferrin, Nathan Kerr, Calum Birney and Daniel Kelly.
As an additional tribute to Ron on Saturday, there will be a minute's silence before kick off and our players will wear black armbands.