 Ards
in the Intermediate Cup by Billy Graham
29th April 2008
This
is the first ever time that Ards have reached the final of the
Intermediate Cup. They last
played in the competition during the Second World War when they had
dropped out of senior football to ply their trade at intermediate level.
The
best Ards ever did during their intermediate exile was a couple of semi
final appearances.
In
the 1940-41 season Ards were put out of the competition at the semi
final stage as they had played an ineligible player in the previous
round. They were due to meet
Glentoran Seconds.
They
got to play in the semi final in the 1945-46 season but lost to Linfield
Swifts 3-0 in a replay at Celtic Park.
The first game had ended 2-2 at the
same venue.
Ards'
second team have fared better than the firsts as they won the
Intermediate Cup back in the 1970-71 season.
They beat Chimney Corner 4-1 in a replay at Solitude on the 14th
April 1971. The first game
between the sides had ended all square at one apiece at the same venue
four days earlier.
Lynn
Porter had scored for Ards Seconds in the drawn game, and in the replay
he bagged himself a brace while Mickey Rooney and Billy Lindsay scored
the other two. Freddie Millar, in
the first tie and Malcolm Nichol, in the replay were the Corner
goal-scorers.
Ards
Seconds team: E.Dunlop, R.Lowry, B.McCullough, C.Murphy, J.Stewart,
B.Lindsay, M.Rooney, B.McAvoy, L.Porter, D.Graham, G.Davidson.
Ards
Seconds' victory was laden with irony as they had defeated the very same
team that had knocked the senior side out of the Irish Cup at
Castlereagh Park two months earlier on the 13th February 1971.
Billy
Graham
Billy Graham is
Ards' resident historian and statistician. If you have a query
relating to a time in Ards' past or to a former player, then get in
touch via this e-mail
and we'll pass the questions on to Billy.
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