Glentoran 1 Steaua Bucharest 1

European Cup Winnders Cup, First Round, 1st Leg

Wednesday 19th September 1990

Kick Off 7:30pm

With Steaua Bucharest having appeared in two European Cup finals between 1986 and 1989 and following the strong showing of the Romanian national side in Italia90, it was a somewhat depleted Steaua team which arrived at the Oval in September 1990, five of their international stars having been transferred abroad in the previous two months.

They were still expected to be strong enough however, to overcome a Glentoran side which had started the season badly and had lost its previous two games (to Glenavon and Crusaders). One of the main reasons for the Glens poor form was that two of their star players had been missing through injury. Billy Caskey was out with a calf strain, whilst striker Gary McCartney had been unavailable since being injured in the Irish Cup win over Portadown. McCartney made a comeback the previous weekend and scored in the 3-1 defeat by Glenavon but he wasn’t considered fit enough to start against Steaua Bucharest. 

Manager, Tommy Jackson, had rightly stated that if the Glentoran players got their attitude and application right then they wouldn’t be overrun. On the night the team put their early season disappointments behind them and turned on a wonderful display, indeed some fans could have been forgiven for wondering if they were watching the same team. From the opening minutes every Glentoran pass found a green shirt and confidence spread throughout the side. Manley, Douglas and Campbell caused the Steaua defence plenty of early problems, whilst at the other end Dean Smyth had to be at his best to keep out a 35 yard effort from Daniel Minea. The best opportunity of the first period came from Lazar, his shot rebounding to safety after striking the post. Two minutes into the second half disaster struck. Centre-half, John Devine, tripped Minea in the area and the Norwegian referee awarded a penalty. Steaua went one up as forward Stan beat Smyth from the spot. Glentoran almost equalised within minutes, with both Manley and Bowers being denied by goalkeeper Stingaciu. Terry Moore then hit the crossbar with a header from a corner and Stephen Douglas missed a great opportunity following a cross from Jameson. After 68 minutes Gary McCartney replaced the tiring Manley and Glentoran surged forward in search of an equaliser. It arrived in the 80th minute; Douglas applying the finishing touch to a move involving McCartney, Campbell and Jameson. Glentoran held on for the draw with man of the match Raymond Morrison producing a terrific tackle to deny Illie Dumitrescu what would have been an undeserved second goal.