50 Years - The Story of the Championship Season PART FIVE

Ards entered February 1958 perched joint top of the Irish League with Glenavon. With half the season's 22 games still to play, the title was proverbially still anyone's.

First though Ards had to navigate the distraction of an Irish Cup tie against the Glentoran second string. That they did with relative ease, winning four to two against the Intermediate side, but in the next round, Ards would not be so fortunate and lost 3-1 away to Ballymena.

To take an optimistic view, the cup defeat allowed for George Eastham's side to focus solely on their league challenge and indeed league results continued to impress. On 8th February Ards went to Coleraine Showgrounds and won 3-1 with another pair of goals from top scorer Hugh Lowry. The following weekend Ards really staked their claim as the league's top side when Glentoran were demolished at Castlereagh Park. Newspaper reports talked of thrills and excitement when referring to the game and no one player could have been more thrilled by the outcome than winger Alex Boyd.

Ards 5-1 Glentoran  from The Chronicle

He followed up on captain George Richardson's opening goal with four of his own to leave the Glens shell-shocked at the 5-1 crushing. A re-arranged game against Distillery followed on the Monday after but those present at Grosvenor saw not a hint of the play that had outclassed Glentoran and Ards conceded a late equaliser to Lowry's 17th minute goal to draw one each.

Ards' next trip was to Seaview on the last weekend in February and fans were glad to see a return to the expected form after the blip earlier in the week at Distillery. On a muddy pitch Ards might have found the going tough but once they went ahead through Boyd, the side never looked back. A second goal followed on 37 minutes, this one from Billy McCrory, and when Boyd fired in his second five minutes from the half, it was all but game over. The second half saw more of a fight from Crusaders and Tommy Moffat denied them on a couple of occasions before finally giving in to Mulholland's equaliser. Ards rode the storm considerably after that but a piece of skill on 73 minutes from Boyd produced Ards' fourth goal and earned the player another hat-trick.

League challengers Glenavon slipped three points behind Ards with this result, coupled with their own defeat at the hands on Linfield on the same afternoon. March began with that Irish Cup exit but the next two ensuing league wins restored the calm in the Ards camp. On 8th March Ards recovered from an early Portadown score to first equalise through Billy Humphries, then claim a 3-2 win with further goals from Lowry and Richardson.

The following week's win over Bangor ensured Ards kept their distance ahead of Glenavon and a week later Ards faced Distillery, who would be one of only two sides that Ards couldn't beat in this 1957/58 season. A 2-2 draw was the outcome at Castlereagh Park as Ards came from a goal behind to look like winning the game, before Distillery hit back with goal in the final minute. Nonetheless another vital point was gained, one that took Ards four clear at the top, what with Glenavon involved in Irish Cup action that day. The Lurgan club had by this stage however, two games in hand.

With that fact in mind the meeting of the two title pretenders on Saturday 29th March couldn't really be billed as any sort of decider. However there were only five games remaining, so a win for each side was a must. A crowd of four and half thousand flocked to Castlereagh Park for this game and were treated to an early goal as Jimmy Jones struck to give Glenavon the lead. Ards were spurred into life after that with wingers Boyd and Humphries giving the visiting full-backs all sorts of problems. A goal from Lowry saw the match level on 27 minutes and a follow up from Alex Boyd three minutes later put Ards 2-1 ahead.

'To the point' - The Newtownards Chronicle

When a third goal arrived courtesy of Humphries finishing off a Boyd move, Ards seemed to have made their mark and with Glenavon goalkeeper Roy Rea going off injured, it wasn't looking like being the Lurgan club's day. However they soon rallied and had a goal back by the half-time whistle to leave the match perched at 3-2. Unexpectedly Rea returned for the second half to bring Glenavon back up to eleven players and with that little bit of luck on their side, the Blues soon levelled - Jimmy Jones the scorer.

The contrast of the two halves couldn't not have been starker as Ards looked tired and Glenavon merely improved with time. The inevitable turnaround was completed with twenty minutes left as Jones struck again to mark a hat-trick and pull Glenavon very much back into the title frame... to be continued

50 Years - Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four