A Farcical Day In Irish League Football? by Andrew McCullough

It was April 1995. Ards had just lifted the Wilkinson Sword League Cup after defeating Cliftonville on penalty kicks in the final. Four days later and back at Castlereagh Park Ards were about to play a pivotal role in defining the future of the Irish League. Well, for a year anyway.

The date of April 29th 1995 was the significant day when Irish League football turned its back on the closed shop sixteen-team format that the Irish Football League had operated for over a hundred years. The 16 member clubs had taken the decision two years previously to implement drastic and fundamental change to the make-up of senior football in Northern Ireland. And this was the day that a mockery was made of their bright ideas.

Promotion and relegation was upon us. In August 1995 eight clubs that had qualified over two seasons for a place in the Promised Land would kick off the season playing in the new Premier League. For the remainder it would be the cold, harsh climate of the Smirnoff First Division. The changes afoot were dramatic, nothing that any club could really prepare themselves for, particularly when many had been promised the earth, but without any details of how it was going to be wrapped up and delivered.

Huge crowds and action-packed games against the cream of the country, week-in, week-out were promised to be on the cards. But the Premier League ticket was the only one valid for that show. So the qualification criteria were clearly set out. A crazy scheme of average positions over two seasons, rather than accumulated or average points, was applied but no-one could really have foreseen the potential farce that was to arise come the day of reckoning on the final Saturday of the 1994/95 season.

The added ingredient of derby games all round on that day had also been thrown into the mix, and so Ards welcomed Bangor to The Park for the first time that season. Up in Londonderry County, the northwest derby was being contested between Coleraine and Ballymena. Most of the issues had already been decided, even that of Glentoran's Premier status, who for some considerable time had looked to be teetering on the edge of the abyss. In fact only one place was still not decided.

As it stood before the game, Bangor had an average of eight and sat in 11th place; Coleraine had the same average and were lying 7th. Both sides had one final chance to claim their place among the big boys. Coleraine's fate was very much in their own hands: a win over their neighbours and they were home and dry; Bangor were not in such a simple situation. They sat a point behind Distillery and ideally were looking for them to loose in Newry, all the while knowing that Coleraine taking all three points was out of the question. With that puzzle completed, an away win at Castlereagh Park would see Bangor join Ards in the top flight.

The situation that the Irish League hadn't reckoned on though, was the possibility that to win the game might not always be in a club's best interests. For Ards were a point behind Coleraine, and more importantly, were a place below them too. So if Ards were to win and Coleraine were to loose, then the Bannsiders' average would increase. Nothing suspicious in that, nothing surprising either but for the fact that in the right circumstances, it just might be in Bangor's interest to fail miserably in their end of season encounter.

And that they did. Ards were the side in form, Premier League football already in the bag and they had recently beaten Bangor in the semi-finals of the League Cup, so when Paul Cullen gave Ards a first half lead, it wasn't entirely unexpected. Half time came with Ards still one in front and the game at Coleraine without a strike to either side. The application of 'the other plan' must now have been considered in the Bangor camp. As it stood, Ards would leapfrog Coleraine, pushing them down into seventh place and out of the Premier, and Bangor would make the cut, should they never touch the ball for the next forty-five minutes.

Now the rivalry that existed between the two North-Down clubs at that time doesn't need repeated here, so there would have been more than a few smiles had the seaside club slipped into the darkness. The second half saw eleven men in yellow shirts going through the various motions. Fifteen minutes in, it was clear as day that Bangor were never going to score; they were prepared to throw their lot in on Plan B. There was nothing to lose now, for Distillery were ahead at Newry and Bangor were destined for an eleventh place finish. Coleraine were now battling for their lives.

"What are the chances of an own goal?" was surely a question asked of the maker by one or two of the home support. Goodness knows it was the only situation that would have troubled Paul Kee in the Ards goal that day. Paul Cullen struck a second to kill the game and for now Ards were on course for a fourth-place finish in the Irish League, an unbelievable achievement given the only sides above them were Portadown, Glenavon and champions Crusaders.

The final whistle blew at Castlereagh Park long before it sounded at the Coleraine Showgrounds, but not a man left the stadium. The final minutes of Coleraine's fight were relayed live around the ground via the public address system as fans listened intently on the terraces and players waited on the pitch. The atmosphere was electric. By the time the whistle sounded, Coleraine and Ballymena had played out a scoreless draw. The reaction that greeted confirmation of Bangor's survival could not have contrasted more on opposite sides of the ground.

As expected, the 'losers' were delirious; the 'victors' were gutted. Bangor had completed the great escape, fashionably late, and ironically Ards had a hand in it. A crazy situation, exploited to the full, determined the final eight members of the inaugural Premier League. Some might say the wrongs were corrected a year later when the sides swapped places as promotion and relegation kicked in.

A one-off event that decimated the very concept of winning for ninety minutes on one Saturday afternoon should have really stood out as an example for the future. But keep an eye on the final league tables this season. As the top and bottom halves of the league are divided, what do you think are the chances of a team in the lower half finishing with more points than many of the sides in the top half? What are its chances of having more points than the champions? It's a scary thought.

first published 21st October 2002