Eddie Wilgar Life Long Glen Man has Kindly Contributed this Write up About the "Olden Days" in around the Oval

Linfield carried all before them in season 1962-3 but when they finished their League campaign they were level on points with Portadown who still had a match to play. Goal average or goal difference weren’t a consideration in those days so the Ports needed one point to be Champions for the first time. Their opponents? The Glens at Portadown! Imagine our feelings going to the match. (Why did we go there anyway, from this distance it doesn’t make sense) Unquestionably we wanted a draw at best but knowing the Glens perversity you can guess the result. Portadown missed a penalty, we beat them, the Irish League Title was decided by a play-off and the Blues were Champs. Worse still they won all 7 trophies that season and didn’t us Eastenders have a miserable time at school for a month or two!

But there were good times too. An early memory is our 8-1 victory at Windsor, which ended what the Bluemen called the Windsor hoodoo. They claimed we hadn’t won a competitive game there for anything up to 20 years. We didn’t want to talk about it. A few weeks later we beat the old enemy 5-1 in a Cup semi at Solitude incidentally giving them a goal start each time. Happy days.

But my favourite game was the Irish Cup Final v Linfield at Windsor in 1974 and my favourite player the star that day, Johnny Jamison. (Stumpy, that is, I never had the pleasure of seeing his namesake).

Johnny didn’t always exert himself too much when we played Bangor at the Oval but when it came to the big games and the must-wins he was sensational, so skilful and so brave. He was outstanding that day, gave Blues player-coach Billy Sinclair a football lesson and we won the Cup despite losing our ‘keeper in the first half (no goalie on the bench in those days, an outfield player went in to goals)

Other favourites from my early days were Trevor Thompson, a big red-headed centre forward who could crash them home from 30 yards and miss from inside the 6-yard box with equal facility, Walter Bruce, long-serving inside forward with great ability, Richie Warburton, a flying right-winger who brought up the usual cries of “Open the gates!” I always had a weakness for a dribbler and Eric Ross was one who filled the bill. He wore contact lenses and every time he shaped to head the ball we’d shout “Another 50 quid for Harris Rundle!” (A leading optician). There were far too many to mention but I shouldn’t forget a tough-tackling wing half by the name of Roy Coyle. What became of him?

Best player from another club I saw was Bertie Peacock who came back from captaining Glasgow Celtic to settle in Coleraine. We used to hoot him when he dallied on the ball but we knew he was all class.

Best team I saw was John Colrane’s. They were hard to beat with stars on every line; it was a treat to go to the match then. Honourable mention should go to two other player-coach imports, Alex (Golden Vision) Young and Peter McParland who scored many a goal for Norn Iron. Neither was a complete success, we’d missed the best of them as players but at least the Board was willing to try something different.

I travelled all over the Province to watch the Glens, either by bus with Duke of York G.S.C. and later Bloomfield G.S.C. or by car (this article gratefully dedicated to Brian Daley). The farthest I went was Waterford for a return first round European Cup-tie. We lost, our cause not helped by selling our best player, Tommy Cassidy after the first leg! Of course there were great European nights like the famous Benfica tie when Tommy Jackson tamed Eusebio and they couldn’t beat us over two legs but took Man. U. to extra time in the Final. A funny little sidelight to those games is that every Glenman who was around then hates the away-goal. “Not a rule at all!” is about the most charitable comment you’ll hear on the subject. There’s no logic behind it, just the fact that we were eliminated from the European Cup on that rule.

I emigrated to Australia in 1977, have seen the Glens only a few times since on holidays “back home” but my heart is still at the Oval and I hope to settle back in Belfast one day so I can go to the match every week. Meanwhile it’s great that I can closely follow my favourites’ fortunes via the Internet these days thanks to the guys who keep the sites up to date.