Bangor’s 2022/23 Premier Intermediate League campaign starts imminently. The visit of Lisburn Distillery to Clandeboye Park tonight (Wednesday) kicks off a new league season, and it will be at the forefront of everyone’s minds that they do what they can to start in the right way.
With a couple of valuable victories, firstly in the Irish Cup first round by defeating Queen’s University 2-0 and then last Saturday’s 0-8 Steel and Sons Cup second stage win against Greenisland, the Seasiders have already built up a bit of positive momentum ahead of this clash.
Distillery’s place in the footballing history of the island of Ireland is unquestionable and undisputed.
Founded in 1880 and originally known simply as Distillery, they are a founder member of the Irish Football Association and the Irish League.
Based in west Belfast and playing at Grosvenor Park, they also competed in the inaugural edition of the Irish Cup in 1881. A first round exit by a scoreline of 11-0 to Knock meant it was but a fleeting appearance in a competition won in the end by fellow current Premier Intermediate League outfit Moyola Park.
It would not be long before that was put right, however. They claimed three Cup wins on the spin between 1884 and 1886, and by 1910 had emerged victorious in nine editions of this esteemed tournament.
By the same point, they were also five-time winners of the Irish League. An invention first implemented in 1890, they had a 10-year spell between 1896 and 1906 where held aloft that quintet of Gibson Cups, taking home several podium finishes as well.
It is fair to say this was their ‘golden era’. It is the point in their history where they won the most significant amount of their major silverware. They also claimed a hatful of County Antrim Shields in their earlier years.
Though in the period post the First World War, it was the trio of Linfield, Belfast Celtic and Glentoran who took the bulk of the top trophies. In fact, between the World Wars – where of course the landscape would be further changed by Ireland’s partition – while Distillery were still in podium contention, in only one year did the title not go to one of the big three (Queen’s Island in 1924).
The Whites would not win the league again until 1963, when they were under the tutelage of revered English boss George Eastham Sr. The Blackpool-born once-capped England international is best known across Bangor’s divide as the man to lead Ards to their one and only top-tier crown in 1958.
He repeated the trick at Grosvenor Park, and the reward was a glamour tie in the European Cup against Portuguese capital club Benfica. They incidentally have just seen off Ukrainian side Dynamo Kyiv to secure their group stage spot in this year’s Champions League, the modern-day iteration, and will learn who their group opponents will be tomorrow (Thursday).
It still brings about memories of those from a certain generation on the time Eusébio came to town. Distillery managed to restrict one of the greatest goalscorers in the game to just one strike, claiming a famous 3-3 draw and at least somewhat of a scalp.
It meant it mattered little in truth that the Águias and their Mozambique-born superstar got their own back with a 5-0 win in the return leg. It still stands as one of those all-time great results for a Northern Irish club in European competition.
In 1971, fresh from winning the Irish Cup, they drew Barcelona in the preliminary round of the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
A teenage Martin O’Neill made the Blaugrana’s nerves jangle, but the Kilrea hero’s strike proved the only one for the Whites in a 7-1 aggregate defeat to a top-quality opponent. His 77th-minute goal in the home leg, which added to the two he got in the Irish Cup final, was probably the last piece of convincing the Nottingham Forest scouts needed to snap him up.
He would sign later that year and win two European Cups in a decade at Forest. To this day, he stands as one of Distillery’s (and Rosario’s before that) greatest exports.
Fast forward to this millennium and more European adventures awaited. Žalgiris Vilnius of Lithuania, Finland’s TPS Turku and Georgian outfit Zestaponi between the years of 2005 and 2010, albeit all ended in clear aggregate defeats.
They had re-consolidated their status in the top league after a spell down in the second-tier. By now they were known as Lisburn Distillery, playing at their New Grosvenor venue in Ballyskeagh more to the southern outskirts of the capital (and northern outskirts of Lisburn, hence the name). However, relegation as the league’s bottom side in 2013 befell them. They have not since re-emerged.
In the present day, they are in the Premier Intermediate League. They enter the season with a fresh face in the dugout in Barry Johnston, following an 8th-place finish in the previous third-tier campaign led mostly under Johnny Clapham.
Clapham also guided the club to the Steel and Sons Cup semifinals last year. Both they and Bangor would be eliminated at this stage. At the end of January, in a battle between the clubs at Clandeboye Park, the visitors took home the points with a late winner on the break.
In terms of how Johnston has started in the cup competitions, they remain in the League Cup after defeating PSNI 2-1 in the preliminary round and are still in the Steel and Sons after beating Newcastle 1-0 after extra time.
Should they defeat Glentoran IIs and the Seasiders see off the revived Belfast Celtic, then their paths will cross in round four of the latter. Stay tuned on that score.
Meanwhile, in the Irish Cup, their journey ended early. A number of first stage upsets of third-tier sides occurred and Distillery were one of those hit. They lost 3-0 to Bourneview Mill of the Mid-Ulster League Intermediate A, the fourth-tier and the league Ballymacash Rangers won last year to help secure their promotion to this level.
They will want to lay their credentials down early. The Seasiders will want to put them to the sword as best as possible.
It will be a swift re-uniting with some of his old teammates for former captain Aaron Harris, who joined Bangor from Distillery this off-season to bolster the midfield.
Underestimating any opponent is always a bad idea. The history speaks for itself when we are discussing the visitors’ pedigree. Early performances have been promising but Lee Feeney’s intentions are clear. The team shan’t rest with what they have – standing still inevitably leads to stagnation, and it was these types of contests where Bangor slipped up at times last season.
With ever-earlier nights and a wind-chill picking up, Bangor will want to warm up nicely with a win.
In other news, Bangor Football Club is delighted to welcome Tom Mathieson to the club as another exciting option to add to an already very strong-looking midfield. The 22-year-old brings Championship pedigree to the club having been a teammate of centre back Ryan Arthur at Ballyclare Comrades last season, as well as working under Niall Currie’s management at Dundela.
Mathieson – who is from Bangor – will wear the number 18 shirt, and the opportunity to sponsor his shirt is open.
Meanwhile, the club is thrilled that season ticket numbers have increased yet again. The amount of holders has heightened season on season since the new board took over, and they are still available to be purchased.
You can email media@bangorfc.com to order yours, or (as far as I know) they will still be on sale from the press box, next to the players’ exit and entrance to the pitch. An adult ticket costs £80, concession tickets – available to over-65s and those aged between 16 and 18 – cost £45 and under-16s are free of charge.
Featured image from Gary Carson/Bangor F.C. media.
- It’s unfair to put blame at feet of Linfield and Cliftonville for Irish Cup Final crowd disorderA penny for the thoughts of Linfield and Cliftonville this week. This year’s Irish Cup Final was a spectacular in every sense. Nearly 15,000 packed inside Windsor Park for the biggest-attended domestic fixture in Northern Ireland this century and an occasion to… Read more: It’s unfair to put blame at feet of Linfield and Cliftonville for Irish Cup Final crowd disorder
- Irish League chiefs must improve provisions in place to attract younger fans and familiesLet’s get a basic fact of life out of the way first – no one likes a price hike. No one likes a price hike in the same way that no one likes paying taxes, bills, debts, insurance and other such necessary… Read more: Irish League chiefs must improve provisions in place to attract younger fans and families
- How the Irish FA’s new ‘Conference Layer’ for intermediate football can be big hit or own goalChanges to the intermediate football sphere in Northern Ireland have long been touted and, going by the Irish FA’s latest update on the topic, closer than ever to coming to fruition. From the 2026-27 campaign, a new ‘Conference Layer’ will be in… Read more: How the Irish FA’s new ‘Conference Layer’ for intermediate football can be big hit or own goal
- Steven McCullough’s crucial goal in relegation play-off seals him as a Ballymena United greatThere’s been a change in priorities for Ballymena United during recent years – albeit not necessarily the type supporters would’ve perhaps wanted. In 2019, the Braidmen were the second best team in the Irish League. Runners-up behind Linfield that year, and just… Read more: Steven McCullough’s crucial goal in relegation play-off seals him as a Ballymena United great
- Ending Cliftonville’s Irish Cup drought proves Jim can fix it… now he must target league gloryFinally, it’s Cliftonville’s year in the Irish Cup. An agonising waiting game ends at last and a drought that lasted 45 painful years is over in one burst of champagne rain. Since 1979, the Reds have contrived to fail in various ways… Read more: Ending Cliftonville’s Irish Cup drought proves Jim can fix it… now he must target league glory
Football Chatters 
Leave a comment