Flicks back through the archives ahead of a big game always make for fascinating reading. Where one piece has already been published looking at Bangor’s storied record in the Steel and Sons Cup, this one looks at those among the current playing camp who have contested in the decider already, be it in the ecstasy of victory or the despondency of defeat.
Several within the Seasiders’ ranks know the feeling. Either feeling. There are two players who could be primed for victory with their second club on Saturday, a survivor from the glorious 2011 squad of champions against Larne and another potentially set to taste glory with their third outfit. Saturday represents an outing that always makes hairs stand on end, but having assets who have been there and done it always helps.
Gareth Beattie
The sole survivor in the current Seasiders squad from the 2011 Steel and Sons Cup decider victory against Larne, Beattie goes in with high hopes of adding to his and the club’s trophy cabinet over a decade on.
A fledgling 20-year-old on that particular Christmas Eve, fan favourite ‘Beats’ goes into this date as one of the more experienced members of the squad. He is a player who, now aged 31 and still with plenty in his arsenal, has seen the Yellows go through all the motions.
Having missed a significant portion of the first half of the season due to injury, not making his first matchday squad appearance until the end of October in the Steel last-16 tie against Glentoran II, Beattie has made his mark when called on.
On the wing-back’s first feature this term, when he replaced Reece Neale as a 76th-minute substitute at a rainswept Clandeboye Park against PSNI in the Premier Intermediate League, it was his shot which the visiting shot-stopper spilled straight into the path of the predatory Ben Arthurs, who converted to complete a 2-0 win.
That was on the 25th October, and on Bangor’s next outing – a 0-3 victory over Belfast Celtic in the Irish Cup third round 11 days later – Beattie came in from the start and delivered the third goal of the game on the stroke of half time.
Gareth’s Steel and Sons plight hasn’t solely been in yellow and blue, though. In a spell with Harland and Wolff Welders during the middle of the last decade, he fell on the wrong side in 2014 when Carrick Rangers bested the east Belfast institution 4-1.
In a game where a future teammate on the seaside in Ben Roy rounded off the scoring for the Amber Army, Beattie was hauled off by Gary Smyth – whose son Casey was, indeed, on the opposite bench in that Glens Seconds bout at Ashfield – at half time, and could only watch from the side throughout the second period.
He probably didn’t realise Roy, a player who always had an eye for the spectacular and who slotted by another future Seasider in Michael Dougherty that day, would be jubilant alongside him five years on as Bangor won the Ballymena League as invincibles in Season 100.
He will aspire for days more reminiscent of that title win three years ago, and eight years prior to that at Seaview too.
Reece Neale
Only two players have skippered Linfield Swifts to the Steel and Sons Cup this millennium.
One of them is Trai Hume, now plying his trade across the water with Sunderland following a series of sublime displays for the Blues senior side in 2021. The Ballymena native also now has call-ups and caps for the senior Northern Irish national team under his belt, coming on the back of helping a team which further comprised future English-based talents Charlie Allen and Dale Taylor to victory over Newington in 2019.
And the other is Reece Neale. The Ballynahinch star’s success over Dundela in 2016 with the junior side of Northern Ireland’s most trophy-laden football team stands as a sure-fire career highlight.
Joined by his older brother Adam at Bangor, Reece has been a top performer in yellow and blue over the last 18 months. His status as vice-captain reflects a personality who has acclaim as a leader, and his attack-minded instincts have proved an invaluable resource down the Seasiders’ left flank this term.
It will be 24-year-old Neale’s third Steel showpiece, and he, like Beattie, knows the bitter taste of defeat too.
The following year, the ‘Ton got their own back against the Swifts when Padraig Scollay scored the only goal of the game eight minutes from time.
A chance for a second victory for the former Ards and Carrick Rangers feature is one he is tantalised by this Saturday.
“It’s about next week now,” he said with a smile after the weekend’s abandoned league game with Banbridge Town.
“I don’t think too many have won it with two different clubs, it’s a great occasion, a great day out.”
That it is the third time Reece will play in this date has in no way diluted his enjoyment of it. He, and everybody else of a Bangor persuasion, will be hoping it will be third time lucky.
Ryan Arthur
Arthur’s role in the final of Carrick Rangers’ 2014 final victory over the Welders – meaning he, like Roy, got the better of a future teammate in Beattie – was a smaller one than he is likely to play this Saturday.
A native of Carrickfergus, it was with his hometown club that the no-nonsense centre back claimed his first Steel success with.
He was, in fact, a 90th-minute substitute for Roy, indicative at that point of boss Gary Haveron’s intent to shore the defence up and close the game out without drama. Having not long turned 19, it was quite the experience for the current Bangor stalwart.
As one of his first bows on the senior stage, it was an exultant one. There was to be no late response from Gary Smyth’s outfit as Rangers closed out a 4-1 win.
Eight years on, Arthur and Beattie will be on the same side on the artificial Seaview surface, aiming for the same highs of that match-up. Via Larne, Ards and Knockbreda, and a brief intermission in Ballyclare, the 27-year-old finds himself hopeful of putting a second edition of this trophy in his cabinet come Christmas.
Of course, Arthur – who first joined the Seasiders in 2018 – will also want to make a mark on the scoreboard as well. He scored one either side of the interval during the club’s ultimately losing semi-final endeavour against Newington last year, and is on a four-month goal drought since a double against Distillery in August.
Could the mainstay be overdue a statement contribution in north Belfast this weekend?
Lewis Harrison
Club captain Harrison was a teammate of Reece Neale’s at Linfield Swifts, but rather on the Blues side that lost rather than the team that won.
He played in the 2017 decider against Newington as an 18-year-old, which was not to fall his way thanks to Scollay’s late strike. It means he finds himself in the same predicament as his manager, having reached a final with the 11-time cup winners but not quite going the full mile.
In his second showpiece, now aged 23 and in a leadership position that reflects the trust Lee Feeney holds in him, the energetic midfielder has the chance this Saturday to emulate left wing-back Neale and become a Steel-winning captain.
Having played for Distillery and Harland and Wolff Welders since, Harrison is among the first names on the Clandeboye chief’s starting line-up and has imposed himself through industry, tenacity and quality on and off the ball.
“We were a very young team that year, but to lose it was a terrible feeling. You can’t even enjoy Christmas after that!” he reflected to Belfast Live’s Steven Crawford.
“From where (Bangor) was a couple of years ago, to win the Steel & Sons Cup would be huge for everyone.”
He’ll be keenly hoping that a similar fate doesn’t befall him with his current employers this year.
Karl Devine
Where the instance of Arthur getting the better of Beattie in one final has already been mentioned, Neale edged on top of Devine in another.
In 2016, midfielder Devine – who would arrive at Bangor in August 2021 on the back of representing throughout six seasons with the Duns – would see his Christmas dampened following a 3-1 loss against Linfield Swifts.
As Alan Dornan’s Swifts took command of proceedings, a 21-year-old Devine would end up going unused. Disappointment was not to be the tale of the composed star’s time at the east Belfast club, though, as he helped the green-shirted outfit to Championship promotion in 2018 with hopes of similar on the seaside this term.
In that latter term, it would be another incumbent Seasider in striker Jordan Hughes who would be a principal architect of that successful step-up, collecting the Premier Intermediate League Player of the Year award in doing so. Both players enjoyed decorated stints at Wilgar Park, 10-time winners of the Steel and Sons, and certainly in Devine’s case, he would richly appreciate the chance to atone for six years ago.
Michael Halliday
Now, did you honestly think a piece on players winning trophies won would not include the great man? A man who has forged a reputation as one of the greatest big-game players in the modern era of the Irish League?
43 years of age and still fighting fit, Halliday goes in with hopes of being in an even more select club than Neale or Arthur. He already has Steel winners medals with two different clubs, and a win with Bangor would make them his third.
Devine was left disappointed in 2016 with Dundela, but three years earlier Halliday was celebrating with the same club.
The east Belfast icon’s Steel triumphs are all unsurprisingly with sides in territory where he is worshipped. At the comparatively youthful age of 34, Halliday helped the Championship club to glory in a tie where the limelight was taken by Carl McComb’s hat-trick in a 4-1 defeat of Amateur League adversaries Immaculata.
The ‘Mac were dealt a blow in the semi-finals of this year’s edition, as Dunmurry Rec saw through to oust them in a penalty shootout at Larne’s Inver Park.
And nine years ago, in the running for their first time prevailing in this competition, it was also to end in tears for the west Belfast unit.
Living up the favourites tag on that day, Halliday’s signature aerial prowess and hold-up helped to generate chances for the likes of McComb.
It backed up when he was part of a Glentoran Seconds fold at the start of the millennium that won consecutive iterations in 2000 and 2001 – both of which had went beyond the regulation 90 minutes.
The first came in the form of a 2-1 win over Cliftonville Olympic which had went to extra time. The second was on spot-kicks, jubilation following a 4-1 shootout victory against a Duns side that kept it level at 2-2 even after extra.
A fun piece of trivia is that each of the past five Steel finals to have required more than 90 minutes to decide is that a team from the east side of the Northern Irish capital – either Dundela, Glentoran II or the Welders – has been involved in it.
It is hoped history will not take an off-day come Saturday morning.
Now that you’ve read this piece on certain players’ past successful outings in the Steel and Sons Cup final, you know what to do.
Over 1,200 tickets sold already. We want that number to increase even more. £7 for adults and £5 for concessions if you fancy.
Featured image from Bangor Centenary Book (2019).
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