Bass Irish Cup Final 1998 Glentoran V Glenavon

Final Score Glentoran 1 Glenavon 0

Kennedy Gives Belfast Glens The Victory

With Windsor Park awash with the blue of Glenavon and the green, red and black of Glentoran the teams walked out at five to three to a now traditional colourful Bass Irish Cup Final reception.

Mourneview manager Billy Hamilton proudly let his team out in the sunny but windy conditions, although Oval boss Roy Coyle graciously allowed long-serving kit man Teddy Horner to do the honours for the Glens. Coyle showed his more ruthless side by dropping regular midfielder Steven Livingstone to the bench with Pete Batey restored to the starting line up.

Glenavon too shocked a few with their squad. Hamilton naming youngster Victor Welch ahead of both veteran defender Paul Byrne and the tigerish James McCartan on the bench. Glendinning fired on a couple of early shots for Glenavon, one blocked and one wide of the target. Tony Grant last year's match winner against Cliftonville was proving a real handful for defenders Chris Walker and John Devine in the early stages while at the other end Andy Kirk was in lively form.

The East Belfast men did look dangerous on 17 minutes when Batey released the green-booted Darren Finlay down the left only for his cross to be well cleared by the covering Johnny Wright. Three minutes later the first real chance presented itself and it came to that man Grant.

He latched onto a Michael Cash pass and after overcoming a defender found himself clean through with only Wayne Russell to beat. The Glens goalkeeper did brilliantly to stand his ground and eventually saved with his legs when the former Preston ace seemed certain to break the deadlock. The missed opportunity obviously did not play on his mind however because he remained by far the most compelling attraction on the field. The Glens did come into their own later in the half with Dermot O'Neill getting down well to wicked Phillip Mitchell effort and then the influential Paul Leeman fired over after some nifty skill. Coyle's men had lots of corners in the later part of the half but could not make them count.

The second half began in lively fashion with Grant once again displaying attacking skills for the men in blue, but it was Glentoran who had first clear cut chance. Leeman robbed Wright on 52 minutes before playing Kirk in however O'Neill did brilliantly to save the youngster's powerful shot. Five minutes later Grant out paced Kennedy down the left and crossed for Dominic Shepherd who could only fire wide when a goal beckoned. If anything Glentoran were the stronger with Batey and then Hamill denied by fine defending from the under rated Stephen Caffrey and Wright respectively. On 73 minutes Glenavon hit back with Glendinning who knows all about scoring late goals in cup finals but his on target shot was diverted wide by Russell with the Mourneview crowd ready to roar. As it turned out referee Leslie Irvine had already blown up for an infringement but it did not lessen the frustration of Hamilton and his backroom staff.

The tension was rising inside the stadium as extra time loomed.  The nails of 8,250 strong crowd must have been bitten to the quick as we entered the last 10 minutes with Darreb Murphy replacing Cash for Glenavon. The speed of Hamill down the right almost produced an opening, but his low driven cross found no one on the end of it. And then as if mirror imaging that Kirk did exactly the same from the lefthand side. The only moment of note in the last few minutes was Glendinning becoming the first player to be shown the yellow card. Referee Irvine's next action was to blow his final whistle and for the rest of us it was a case of looking forward to extra time.

Alot of people thought the man with the No 3 shirt would be a match winner, but we expected him to be in the blue of Glenavon not the green of the Glens. John Kennedy was certainly an unlikely hero at Windsor Park today. And the goal was unlikely in other ways too, because up until that moment no one could envisage one coming. It was hard on Glenavon because they didn't deserve to lost the Irish Cup Final. Having said that they didn't do nearly enough to win it. It was the sort of game, a dour, uncompromising affair that would need only one goal to settle it.  For the third season in a row Northern Ireland's Premier competition has been settled by a single goal, and just like two years ago we expected Glentoran and Glenavon two naturally attacking teams to entertain us. It never really happened although the state of the now notorious Windsor Park playing surface could well have been a contributory factor.

Teams

Glenavon-O'Neill, Wright, Glendinning, Quigley, Cash, G Smyth, McCoy, Byrne, Shepherd, Grant, Caffrey, Subs O'Flaherty, Welch, Murphy

Glentoran-Russell, Nixon, Kennedy, Walker, Devine, Leeman, Mitchell, Finlay, Kirk, Batey, Hamill, Subs Elliott, Livingstone, M Smyth

Referee Leslie Irvine