A new type of test awaits for the Seasiders this Saturday afternoon (1:30pm kick-off), where Strabane Athletic visit Clandeboye Park in an eye-catching Irish Cup second round clash. Following Cliftonville and Annagh United – high-flyers in the respective first and second-tiers of Northern Irish football – comes a club from the fourth-division Intermediate League. Not that any undue disrespect should be given.
It ranks as one of the longest away days a club can have in the footballing sphere here. Near enough a two-hour journey inland for the visitors, from just a few short miles from the western border with Co Donegal to a far more eastern venue in Co Down. Such escapades always make one extra keen to come away with all the spoils.
It is a chance for the Seasiders to put the disappointment of the past week and a half behind them and secure a return to winning ways.
Momentum is a valuable resource in the Irish League. It is the unfortunate reality that streaks – even ones that live on in the memory and record books like the run of six successive clean sheets to start this season – will come and go, that you’ll win some and lose some.
What is important is that you don’t stay down for long. It is still an early stage of the season yet, and there is lots of time to atone for past disappointments.
This tie is a bit of a shift in dynamic from the last two cup fixtures. Where the Yellows naturally entered on paper as underdogs, facing two teams near the top of the two tiers above, they come into this fixture as favourites being the side from the higher league.
Favourites tags are only nominal, though. You have to go out and prove your credentials on the pitch.
The welcoming of the visitors from Strabane comes in the second round of the Irish Cup. In the first stage, there were enough thrills and spills to satisfy the whole competition, with half the third-tier’s teams dramatically falling at the first hurdle. Who could have seen Willowbank, of Division 1C in the Amateur League, turn over last season’s 3rd-placed Premier Intermediate side and Intermediate Cup finalists Armagh City 1-4 on their own turf?
The Holm Park outfit turned out one of four level three sides to drop out to lower-league opposition, alongside Tobermore United (1-0 at Albert Foundry), Lisburn Distillery (3-0 at Bourneview Mill), Portstewart (2-1 at Grove United) and PSNI (0-2 at home to Comber Rec).
Newly demoted Queen’s University were the sixth and final side to be eliminated. It was the defeat of them that sets this tie up for Bangor, having in their first competitive match this term sealed a 2-0 win in the sole all-PIL match-up of the first round thanks to well-taken first half finishes by Ben Arthurs and Karl Devine.
https://footballchatters.sport.blog/2022/08/15/bangor-vs-queens-match-review-quality-days-work/
The Seasiders only need to look at what ensued a month ago to know there is the potential for a banana skin at every turn.
It is important all eyes are on the ball from the first peep of the referee’s whistle at 1:30pm.
Strabane Athletic’s journey in the Irish Cup commenced with a sound 2-0 home win over Cookstown Youth. Recently founded in 2010, they are one of the newer forces in the pyramid but formidably were Intermediate League champions within their first decade of coming into existence.
Last year, the club hired five-capped former Northern Ireland international Rory Patterson as player-manager.
Named by Nigel Worthington to the Green and Whites’ senior squad for the first time in 2010, Patterson – a homegrown hero of Strabane – debuted as a substitute against Albania in March of that year. He scored his only goal for the senior national team that November, a spot-kick in a 1-1 draw against Morocco.
He is perhaps most well-known in the Irish League sphere for his exploits at Coleraine in the 2009/10 season. His 30 Premiership goals for the Bannsiders that term – the most goals scored by a player in a single Premiership season for over a quarter of a century up to that point – means he is the sole figure of the Showgrounds side to end a campaign as Premiership top goalscorer this millennium, with 41 as a total across all competitions. That is the billing the red-hot Matthew Shevlin must live up to this term.
Also featuring for the likes of Derry City, Crusaders and Dungannon Swifts at the top level, as well as FC United of Manchester, Rochdale, Bradford Park Avenue and Plymouth Argyle across the water, 38-year-old Patterson has enjoyed a distinguished playing career as he now makes the transition to first-team coaching. His pedigree makes it logical that he be singled out as one who can deliver.
No tie will be a given in this competition, if the first round taught anything. This one should not be treated as such either.
| Other matches | Irish Cup R2 (select ties) | |
| Ballymacash Rangers | vs | Bryansburn Rangers |
| Banbridge Town | vs | Fivemiletown United |
| Belfast Celtic | vs | Maiden City |
| Lisburn Rangers | vs | Dollingstown |
| Moyola Park | vs | Abbey Villa |
| Orangefield O.B. | vs | Limavady United |
| Wakehurst | vs | Albert Foundry |
Fourth-tier tests await between this match and the re-scheduled clash with Belfast Celtic in the Steel and Sons Cup. It was confirmed last night that this encounter will take place on Saturday fortnight, the 1st October, after next week’s top-of-the-table Premier Intermediate League affair with Ballymacash Rangers at the Bluebell.
It is best to keep focus on the present for now. The club’s aim in Ireland’s oldest cup competition is to still be in the hat by the time Premiership clubs enter the fray around the turn of 2023.
Bangor defeated Killyleagh Y.C., St James’ Swifts and Colin Valley to fulfil this aim last term. All those matches against lower-league opposition were well-fought, with no more than a two-goal margin of victory in any of those three fixtures.
Ethan Boylan’s post-match reaction after the Annagh match-up was indicative that even in defeat, a thing or two can always be learned and carried on.
“We were maybe on a bit of a high after the Cliftonville match and this has brought us back down,” the seasoned striker reflected.
“As long as you learn from it, that’s the most important thing.”
It is a reminder that on this path to glory, there will be bumps in the road and there is work still to be done.
Professionalism has been a theme of the Yellows’ start to the season. Hopefully this is a means to go on, and that after a bitter result in mid-week, whatever team Lee Feeney selects comes out fit and firing and ready to react and put on a show.
In other news, as referred to in the main body, the Steel and Sons Cup second round match with Belfast Celtic – postponed in line with football at all levels as a mark of respect in the weekend following the passing of Her Majesty The Queen – has a confirmed new date. The match will take place at Glen Road Heights on the 1st October.
The first round draw for the Intermediate Cup has also been confirmed. The Seasiders will be on the road, with another trip to west Belfast to face Albert Foundry at Paisley Park on the 15th October. Bangor had a good run in this tournament last campaign before being eliminated by Newington in February.
Elsewhere, the club would like to extend well wishes to players Eoin O’Neill and Finn Moffett, who have departed to begin their university studies.
Academy products who stepped up from the Under-18s to first-team action last summer, the 18-year-old prospects caught the eye with their energy and attack-minded impetus going forward. Moffett’s exploits earned him the Reserves Top Goalscorer accolade, scoring on his senior debut in September 2021 against St Luke’s in the Steel and Sons Cup, while O’Neill’s trickery in a goal-laden pre-season extended to the return to competitive action.
Also, Bradley Lyttle has left the Yellows to join Amateur League side St Mary’s. The 21-year-old midfielder, who joined over the summer, did not make a senior appearance. The club wishes good luck for him in his next career step.
The club is also proud to unveil a new weekly series called ’20 Questions’, where every week a player will be asked on a variety of topics from their favourite teammates to who turns up to training worst-dressed. In the first edition, club captain Lewis Harrison was the subject.
It is part of the ongoing plan for the club to give supporters a deeper insight into our playing squad, also in line with post-match player interviews here. You can find ’20 Questions’ every week on the club’s Facebook and Instagram pages, while they will also be copied in these write-ups.
Featured image from Sarah Harkness.
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