Bangor’s Premier Intermediate League season is on the verge of starting. Another campaign of hopefully jostling near the top of the tree for a Championship step-up alongside some esteemed sides in the Irish League pyramid.
In this division, there are some fascinating stories and tales to tell. The Seasiders share a league with a side who once opportunistically faxed in to try to recruit Argentine striker Carlos Tevez from Manchester City on loan. Another team stand as the only one that the great George Best played senior competitive football for on these shores.
Most are familiar foes, but two are new entries – one of whom has never played at this level before. Even those tasked with keeping our streets safe spend some of their off-time playing football at this competitive level. There is lots of intrigue to be had and felt, and the Seasiders will hope that by the end, the pain of missing out on promotion last term is not repeated.
You could call this ‘the big one’. Presenting to you – a preview of the 11 teams Bangor are to face home and away in pursuit of an ultimate prize.
Armagh City
Ground: Holm Park, Armagh City, Co Armagh
Manager: Shea Campbell
Position in 2021/22: 3rd-place
Armagh City were Bangor’s closest competitors for the playoff spot last season, with the Seasiders edging what was effectively a straight shoot-out on the league’s final day 3-1 at Clandeboye Park for the right to face Knockbreda.
Founded in 1964 as Milford Everton, they changed their name to what it is currently when they moved to Armagh, taking occupation of their current Holm Park venue in 1993 which has been the location of their home matches ever since.
It is fair to say times have been a little rocky for the Eagles of late. Last season they were defeated in the Intermediate Cup final by Rathfriland Rangers, the subject of a heavy loss that ensured Newington’s second-tier progression and losers of that face-off on Seasider soil that had they won, they would have been in with a shot of returning to the Championship for the first time since 2017.
They will want to put right a slow start to this term too. In the Irish Cup first round, they were upset by Amateur League Division 1C side Willowbank 1-4 on home soil. They were then roundly defeated 0-4 by Tobermore in their Premier Intermediate League opener.
In any case, they would not have been in contention by the end if they did not have quality in their ranks. They had two representatives in Marc McConnell and Conor Mullen in last term’s PIL Team of the Season.
Under local hero Campbell – an ace of various established outfits like Linfield, Cliftonville, Dungannon Swifts, Ballymena and Glenavon across his playing career – the expectation is to prove this run is a false dawn and to re-assert themselves in the promotion hunt once more.
Ballymacash Rangers
Ground: The Bluebell Stadium, Lisburn, Co Antrim
Manager: Lee Forsythe
Position in 2021/22: 1st-place (Mid-Ulster Football League Intermediate A)
Newly-promoted to the third-tier of Northern Irish football for the first time in their history, Ballymacash are out to make a major splash this term.
On the back of topping their league, and doing so in emphatic style with 25 wins in 30 matches, a two-legged contest with St. James’ Swifts awaited to seal their spot. Facing the winners of the Ballymena and Provincial Football League – the route Bangor took to re-claim their spot back in the Irish League three years ago – the Cash swept aside their foes from the capital and emerged 5-2 winners on aggregate.
Led until a couple of years ago by former Linfield captain Michael Gault, who now heads up the Blues Swifts, he was succeeded in the role by Forsythe. Within two years of assuming the managerial post, the former Knockbreda and Ards Rangers boss has the club where they want to be. He will ensure his players don’t take their eye off the ball in the next phase of their ambitious project. That project includes stadium renovations that have continued to build up steam of late.
Their badge is certainly one of the more eye-catching in the Northern Irish footballing landscape. The Jolly Roger rose to become a symbol of Ballymacash, largely associated by the local marching band scene, and is embedded on the club crest. As the club refer to with this anecdote from club founder Tommy Heasley on the reasoning behind installing such a symbol when they were born in 1984:
“It was around 1981, when I visited the old Army Surplus store that used to be in the Cornmarket in Belfast, that I purchased a Jolly Roger flag, for no other reason than I liked the flag.
“It hung on my bedroom wall until the Ballymacash Young Conquerors Flute Band was formed around 1982 and a young Billy Williamson wanted to carry a flag instead of the band pole.
“We hunted about and couldn’t find any other flag other than the Jolly Roger on my bedroom wall, so stuck it on and brush shaft and off we went to parade with the band.
“We certainly stood out as no other band was carrying a pirate flag, so decided just to keep bringing it as a bit of craic.”
Their step-up to this new level brought with it somewhat of a harsh reality on their opening game, with a 2-1 defeat to Dollingstown signalling their elimination from the League Cup. They hope to put that right by beating Portstewart on the north coast in their Premier Intermediate League opener tonight (Tuesday), a historic occasion any which way.
Banbridge Town
Ground: Crystal Park, Banbridge, Co Down
Manager: Frankie Wilson
Position in 2021/22: 5th-place
Banbridge Town – not to be confused with Banbridge Rangers who Bangor played in pre-season, right next door to their Crystal Park home – gave the Seasiders a lot of head-scratching moments last season.
They recorded home and away wins in the pre-split last term, but Bangor got their own back in the post-split with a big road victory. That led directly onto the 3-1 Armagh City success, spurring on the result of a playoff finish.
Wilson is a familiar face to the home faithful. It was with the Seasiders where he won his first piece of major silverware as a manager – the 2011 Steel and Sons Cup – and he is well-regarded for a structured and disciplined approach.
Save for a few anomalies at the tail end of last term, his Town unit were low-scoring but mean in defence. By the season’s end, even with some atypical scorelines like a 5-2 defeat to Dollingstown and a 5-0 hammering at the hands of Newington, they still ended with amounts of 28 goals scored and 25 conceded in 25 matches. The latter tally, even with those results, was still a league-best.
It was fitting then that a centre back, Andrew Martin, was their sole Premier Intermediate League Team of the Season representative last year.
They started their 2022/23 season front-footed, with a 1-3 win at Tobermore to advance in the League Cup and a 9-0 obliteration of Ballynahinch United to move forward in the Irish Cup, but were beaten 1-4 at home to Dollingstown in their league opener at the weekend. Their target is to be up near the top once more.
Dollingstown
Ground: Planters Park, Dollingstown, Co Down
Manager: Stephen Uprichard
Position in 2021/22: 6th-place
Located just a short drive from Craigavon, Dollingstown have grown to be a familiar foe of Bangor’s in the Premier Intermediate League.
Under Uprichard, appointed to succeed former long-serving boss Gary Duke in 2016, the Dolly Birds achieved promotion back into the Irish League in 2017 having only just secured a step-up into the then-named Championship 2 for the first time in 2014. They have since been mainstays in the third-tier.
Last season, they secured a top-half finish. This term, they started well with that 1-4 road victory in Banbridge and progressed in the Irish Cup with a slender 1-0 win over Larne Tech O.B. to advance to the second round. There was similar positivity in the League Cup preliminary round, defeating Ballymacash 2-1, and will play in somewhat of a local rivalry in the next stage at Mourneview Park against Glenavon.
Intermediate Cup winners in 2019/20, they have a storied past at the intermediate level in general and are genuine in their hopes of making new pieces of history. Founded in 1979, they began effectively out of jumpers for goalposts, rising up to assume their current model which has helped them consolidate their status.
They have started the season positively and will seek to further improve on last term’s 6th-place finish. Early results signify that they are putting the next phase of their plan into action without haste, and that they will be problematic going forward.
Limavady United
Ground: The Showgrounds, Limavady, Co Derry/Londonderry
Manager: Andrew Law
Position in 2021/22: 4th-place
An away trip to the Limavady Showgrounds is one of the longest on the calendar for Bangor but also one of the most scenic. The sight of the green and hilly Sperrin Mountains when you glance to your left or right is quite something to behold.
The Roesiders enjoyed a solid campaign last time, with star striker Alex Pomeroy representing them in the Team of the Season in the end. Pomeroy could be signalled as their main threat last season – a tall, physically-strong but mobile frontman who puts himself about and goes into his duels with conviction.
Limavady are one of Ireland’s oldest football clubs. Founded in 1884, in the early days they were about as prominent a provincial threat to the Belfast establishment as could be, and were two-time Irish Cup finalists in 1886 and 1887. In more recent times, they briefly gained national attention by trying to loan in Carlos Tevez from Manchester City in 2011 when Roberto Mancini stressed his time with the Cityzens was up.
“Naturally, our club would not be in a position to discharge Mr Tevez’s (reported £200k a week) wages but I am sure you can see the advantages of keeping him match fit prior to any possible sale,” wrote vice-chairman David Brewster.
If you don’t ask you don’t get, but unsurprisingly the deal never transpired.
Nowadays, the Lims are hunting promotion to the Championship. Last in the Northern Irish second-tier in 2018/19, they started their league season with a 2-2 draw at Moyola Park and learned they will face Newry City – another side with a stadium named the Showgrounds – in the League Cup. Orangefield O.B. await in the Irish Cup.
Their aim is like all the other top-half teams last season – to secure that second-tier step-up to face off against a new level of competition. They last defeated Bangor 4-2 on their home soil last year, a result that kept their playoff hopes alive and put pressure on the Seasiders to see it through. Don’t be surprised if they push again.
Lisburn Distillery
Ground: New Grosvenor Stadium, Ballyskeagh, Co Down
Manager: Barry Johnston
Position in 2021/22: 8th-place
Grand old Distillery. The famous Whites, one of the founding fathers of football on this island. Born in 1880 and originally based at Grosvenor Park in west Belfast, they have resided at their New Grosvenor venue more to the southern outskirts of the Northern Irish capital (or northern outskirts of Lisburn if you like) in Ballyskeagh for the past four decades.
Originally known simply as ‘Distillery’ – and still colloquially referred to by that name across the footballing sphere – they added ‘Lisburn’ as a prefix to reflect their closer location to the since-anointed neighbouring city in 1999.
You just cannot talk about the history of the sport in Ireland without bringing up this outfit. A side who have played Barcelona and Benfica in Europe, even claiming a stunning 3-3 draw with the latter in the 1963-64 preliminary round of the European Cup, they have been there and done that. They have seen it all.
A Premiership side as recently as 2013, their status as a third-tier team should not detract from the respect they should be given.
No less than when Bangor were defeated on home soil by them last season. Distillery took the points home with a late winner on the counter at Clandeboye Park at the end of January. This term, they started their League Cup campaign victoriously with a 2-1 win over PSNI – but were left despondent as their Irish Cup adventure ended at the first hurdle with a 3-0 defeat away to Bourneview Mill.
Manager Johnston’s appointment – who indeed led last season’s St. James’ side that were denied an Irish League spot by Forsythe’s Ballymacash – came in the wake of the rather abrupt departure of Raymond Alexander, who was only in the post for five weeks or so when he opted to stand down in mid-June.
His league opener is against the Seasiders at Clandeboye, and he will doubtless be hopeful of repeating the heroics masterminded by Johnny Clapham in order to start the club’s league campaign with a win.
Clapham also helped them to the Steel and Sons Cup semifinals where – alongside Bangor – they were on the losing end in the last-four, and it will furthermore be a swift re-uniting of former Whites captain Aaron Harris with his old side having joined the gold and blue-shirted lot this off-season.
It is never easy to predict what will happen in a close-knit league with a fresh face in the dugout. Johnston will aim for improvement to come.
Moyola Park
Ground: Mill Meadow, Castledawson, Co Derry/Londonderry
Manager: Stephen Hughes
Position in 2021/22: 9th-place
A few famous figures hail from Castledawson, a village just to the northwest of Lough Neagh. The world-renowned poet Seamus Heaney – whose museum is located in nearby Bellaghy – and former Ulster Unionist Party leader and Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark both hail from there.
There is also a long-standing football club based in this part of the world. Moyola Park, founded in 1880, who stand as the first-ever winners of the Irish Cup (Ireland’s oldest football cup competition). Their landlord, Lord Spencer Chichester, was the first President of the Irish Football Association, and conveniently, John McAlery, another integral figure in the foundation of the Association, was in the Cliftonville side they defeated 1-0. Much of their history has been in the junior circles, as they decided not to join the Irish League on its inauguration in 1890.
In more recent times, they had a spell of success around the turn of the millennium under current Northern Ireland women’s team boss Kenny Shiels – who is from nearby Magherafelt – and while arguably not the first team to spring to mind around the topic of history and prestige of the game here, they have most certainly played their part.
Last season was a disappointing one. A bottom-half finish, cut 12 points adrift of 8th-placed Distillery, is not where they want to settle. That Irish Cup success of 1881 is their foremost major honour, but in 2002 they achieved promotion as third-tier champions to add one of their biggest intermediate achievements to the cabinet.
In the present, they displayed excellent resilience to come from two goals down against a strong Limavady outfit and earn a 2-2 draw in a regional derby affair. They also allayed early Irish Cup elimination fears by beating Tullyvallen 5-0 to advance to the second round, while in the League Cup they defeated Portstewart 4-1 after extra time. The reward of their win in the latter is a home date with Premiership champions Linfield.
The Park have clearly made their intentions known. They are pursuing a brighter campaign and they have shone in their initial impressions.
Portstewart
Ground: Seahaven, Portstewart, Co Derry/Londonderry
Manager: Johnny Law
Position in 2021/22: 7th-place
Just edging out Distillery to the 7th-position in the table on goal difference, Portstewart trips are well-known for being quite cold and blustery.
There are few (if any) more northern trips that one can make to watch football in Northern Ireland. Located just to the north of Coleraine, the Seahawks are accustomed to making life difficult for visiting teams and they have a historic knack of being a stumbling block to teams aspiring to finish in promotion contention.
Last season underwhelmed relative to the fact that in the last season pre-stoppage, they were in a serious promotion push. They were 2nd-place in the table, unbeaten in 14 matches and had the best defensive record in the league in 2019/20. Had the season continued on, they could have been celebrating an iconic promotion, but public health of course had to take precedent as a pandemic raged.
This season has not started how they would have envisioned. They were knocked out of the League Cup preliminary round by Moyola Park, and eliminated in the Irish Cup first round in an away day in the capital at Grove United.
They were a particular nuisance for Bangor to handle in that 2019/20 term, with home and away wins to nil on both occasions. They have work to do to get back to those levels of a couple of years ago, but characteristics they possess are documented to their opponents.
PSNI
Ground: Newforge, south Belfast
Manager: Glenn Taggart
Position in 2021/22: 10th-place
If you are reading this and are not already familiar with the Northern Irish football scene, I can assure you that you are reading this one correctly.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland do in fact have a competitive football team.
They have been around the block as well, it’s fair to say. An Irish League stalwart – if not notably at the top-tier – they have existed for almost a century and even changed their name in line with the police service’s own re-brand from the RUC to the PSNI. Originally, the squad was exclusively made up of serving law enforcement officers, though non-officers can play for the club in the modern day.
They have a number of major intermediate honours to their name. They were winners of the 1994 Steel and Sons Cup, four-time Intermediate Cup victors and twice Amateur League champions in the early 1970s.
It’s not controversial to argue they’re on the hunt to bounce back to their glory days. Last season, they finished in second-last on 16 points, and given they entered the term as the relegated second-tier side from 2019/20, they will have felt frustrated that they did not impose themselves stronger. They are yet to get their 2022/23 league campaign under way, but their early cup results imply a bounce-back is needed.
The Police – as they are logically known colloquially – were eliminated in the preliminary round of the League Cup, suffering a 2-1 defeat to Distillery at New Grosvenor in a game that was level for over an hour. Their Irish Cup adventure also ended prematurely in their books, with a 0-2 home defeat to Comber Rec in the first round.
While it is pessimistic to list survival as their foremost aim, that is how it could transpire if they do not allay their slow start. They will want to start front-footed in league action and let the momentum swing on from then.
Queen’s University
Ground: The Dub, south Belfast
Manager: James Lavery
Position in 2021/22: 12th-place (Championship)
The police service and the capital city’s main university complex both have football teams. Moreover, their home venues are located mere minutes from each other. Imagine the chances of that!
Where PSNI entered division three as the relegated side of 2019-20 last season – of course 2020-21 was a season that never was from the second-tier below – Queen’s are the newly-demoted outfit this campaign. Bangor have already got a taster of what they are about, and passed a potentially stern Irish Cup examination to knock them out as 2-0 home victors.
With a few familiar faces to Seasiders supporters recognisable on the pitch for the white-shirted outfit, including Adam Calvert and Chris Middleton, it is not entirely a team of students but the university is keen that it forms the crux of the squad.
Like the Police, Queen’s have been there and done that. They attracted national attention for completing one of the most stunning Irish Cup upsets of recent times, eliminating a Shayne Lavery-spearheaded Linfield outfit at The Dub with a thrilling 3-2 win. They achieved Championship promotion and therefore Senior status in 2019, finishing 9th-place in their first season that was ultimately curtailed by Covid.
Last season, while they fought to the end, Knockbreda prevailed in the battle for a playoff position. They finished in 12th-place, the second-tier’s bottom side, and were automatically relegated. Bangor would face Breda in the two-legged playoff, and it ended with the Championship’s 11th-positioned side keeping their spot with a 4-2 aggregate victory.
It was at the end of last season that the overseer of some of the greatest times the team has known, Peter Thompson, decided to stand down after their relegation to this level. James Lavery – a scorer of 120 goals in five seasons and a key part of Thompson’s coaching staff – is the man tasked with trying to continue his predecessor’s excellent work.
“He has a good knowledge of our players and how a university club works,” explained chairman Denis Clarke on the reasoning behind appointing Lavery.
“Our players have a lot of respect for him and we are very pleased that he is staying with the club.”
Founded in 1910, they have catered for uni-level players in Northern Irish football for well over a century. In recent times, they had that rise to the second-tier, their defeat of the record champion Blues and an Irish Cup semifinal run in 2014, plus an Intermediate Cup success sprinkled in for good measure. Best not to write them off trying to bounce back up under Lavery’s new tutelage.
Tobermore United
Ground: Fortwilliam Park, Tobermore, Co Derry/Londonderry
Manager: Adrian Whiteside
Position in 2021/22: 11th-place
Last season was a really rather chastening one for this red and black-shirted outfit from the northwest. They picked up just seven points all season, not winning a single one of the 24 matches they played, but due to it being an 11-team league that needed one more to even it out again, they preserved their Irish League status.
With the Premier Intermediate League restored to 12 teams, a repeat performance will not be forgiven. The Reds’ claim to fame is being the only Northern Irish team George Best played competitively for in his career – even if it was only a solitary outing in 1984 and it ended in a 7-0 Irish Cup defeat to Ballymena United – and having been around for almost 60 years have experienced a lot in their time of existence.
And you must hand it to them. They have already one-upped their entire win tally from last term with a brilliant 0-4 away beating of Armagh City.
Three second half strikes put seal on a superb display that has them up and running from the outset. In the other early competitions, Banbridge Town got the better of them in the League Cup preliminary round, while Albert Foundry upset them in the Irish Cup first stage which will both go down as disappointments.
Having also avoided the drop courtesy of it being only an 11-team league in 2019/20 – they also ended 11th-place at the time of the Covid stoppage – Tobermore’s ambition will quite simply be to not repeat that and retain their spot in the Irish League, and push on from whatever positive results come their way.
Featured image from nifootballleague.com – as incidentally are all the badges.
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