Glentoran 3 Royal Antwerp 3

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, First Round, 2nd Leg

Wednesday 6th October 1965

Kick Off 7:45pm

The first leg of this tie, played in Belgium, ended in a 1-0 victory for the home side, the goal coming in the 85th minute from Van de Velde.  Reports of the game suggest the Glentoran performance was very poor, only Finlay and Creighton emerging with any credit, but trailing only 1-0 the Glens fancied their chances of progressing to round two.

Wednesday 6th October 1965 saw Belfast shrouded in a thick fog, despite the problem of very poor visibility, Scottish referee Mr Syme decreed that the match should go ahead.  A crowd of 22,000 turned up at the Oval hopeful of seeing the Glens overcome the narrow first 

 leg deficit.  Journalists watched the game from the trainers bench, but with visibility restricted to 30-40yards most of the match reports were concocted afterwards with the help of the players.  Two goals came in the first half, Segers scoring for Antwerp, and Ken Hamilton for Glentoran, following a free kick from Arthur Stewart.  Ten minutes into the second period the Glens went in front when Trevor Thompson drilled a left foot shot into the corner of the net.  They held the lead until the 68th minute when Van Moer equalised for the Belgian side, and thus restored their aggregate advantage.  With only 10 minutes remaining Thompson put the Glens 3-2 up on the night when he headed home a Walter Bruce free-kick.  Had Glentoran held on to win,  a third game would have been played(no away goals rule was placed in 1965), the venue being decided by the toss of a coin, but in the 89th minute Van de Velde scored to see Royal Antwerp through to round two.