This weekend, Bangor will travel to south Belfast in fresh pursuit of three more points to add to their Premier Intermediate League total. Saturday’s match-up against the PSNI presents the Seasiders with a chance to assume top spot while Ballymacash Rangers are not in action, advancing to 31 points from a possible 33 with victory against a team hungry to claim their first league win this season.
The Dub is a venue where the North Down institution have already tasted the fruits of victory this season, having bested Queen’s University in a nerve-wracking affair at the beginning of December. In a weekend that is mostly dominated by Intermediate Cup third round action – such that this is the sole third-tier duel of any description – the Seagulls are aiming to steal a march.
Having hosted The Police on a rain-drenched Tuesday evening at the end of October, the visitors are intent on claiming a league double.
Ben Arthurs and Adam Neale hit the target in the second half to bag a 2-0 victory amid the unforgiving conditions at Clandeboye Park.
Combined with Lisburn Distillery springing to life to peg Ballymacash back to even terms, ending two apiece in a lively derby encounter at The Bluebell, the Yellows’ success that midweek was enough to take them to the top of the table.
Almost three months on, another defeat of the same opposition would again put the Seagulls back on the leading pedestal.
Amid more frostbite of late, with snow and ice once more on the agenda, PSNI – who did not play last week – will hope for a refreshed resurgence from an eight-goal humbling at the hands of The Cash that can spur them on to a long-awaited first win of the campaign.
Having picked up their only point of the season to date in a goalless draw at Banbridge Town on the 3rd September, losing each of the other nine of their 10 league outings and suffering early exits from the cups, they will be chomping at the bit to claim a scalp that would assuredly fuel their optimism going forward.
A side comprising several ex-Seasiders, including midfield ace Louis Blackstock, defender Ben Gordon – Reserves captain last season and son of revered Bangor assistant Dean – attacker Tony Tumelty and most recently former Carrick Rangers and Crusaders star Ben Roy, they are not to be downplayed merely because they prop up the league.
When the objective is to dig yourself out of a hole, that can give you a second wind with still so much of the campaign to go.
And for what it’s worth, with that context in mind, you can’t afford to let your guard drop.
The Seagulls swoop down on the back of a narrow win over Moyola Park last Saturday. Against the backdrop of a horrible cocktail of adverse conditions, the rain, wind and cold, Adam Neale’s header on the stroke of the half-hour was enough to ensure all three points.
Collectively, it was their eighth win in a row across all competitions, and a sixth successively in league play. With 15 victories in the previous 16 dating back to the start of October, confidence has seldom been higher in the Seasiders camp.
And with a 17th clean sheet of the campaign – equalling last season’s total – the players are taking pride in totting up the stats.
With this latest trip commencing a run of three league outings in seven days, with a home match next Tuesday against Banbridge Town followed up by the return battle with Moyola in Castledawson, nine points out of nine is a fairly simple stated objective. After all, the stat that matters most is the number of points and wins on the board in this promotion push.
The winter may have presented its own trials, given the scale of postponements and bouts of illness impacting on selection panels of late, but it has hitherto done little to slow the Seasiders. Saturday’s battling endeavour versus The Park set a new high for successive wins since the club returned to the Irish League, and they will face Glenn Taggart’s team front-footed in the push for number nine.
Clandeboye chief Lee Feeney will be keen to welcome back club captain Lewis Harrison to the team, who missed out last week due to a sick bug, while vice-skipper Reece Neale is also set for a return to the starting fold having appeared from the bench last time out.
Jamie Glover, energetic as a substitute after sickness ruled him out of contention for the club’s first two matches of this year, will also be vying for a starting spot, while Tom Mathieson’s recent return from injury after a 10-week absence – his last start was in the home leg of this fixture – equally boosts the ranks.
However, after being in the heat of the battle against Moyola and taking a few blows – including one that resulted in a straight red card for The Park‘s Caolan Gillan, being substituted shortly after for preservation purposes – the reliable Seanna Foster may be touch-and-go.
A goal-rich start to 2023, with 10 scored and none conceded in three games so far, is a trajectory Bangor want to build on.
“I know that if we get the results, then the table will look after itself so there is little to be gained from studying it at the moment,” pointed out Feeney to Neil Watson in this week’s County Down Spectator.
“In the dressing room, we’re always breaking the league down into smaller groups of fixtures and targets. After beating Moyola Park on Saturday, we now have three league matches before we stop to play the Irish Cup (sixth round).
“Those three league matches are the focus of everyone in our dressing room. We know what we want to get out of those matches and once we get through those, we can then get a break and enjoy the Irish Cup match with Crusaders.
“It’s important mentally to have those small targets and also then to be able to switch off from the league for a week when we play Crusaders.”
It particularly pleased the Bangor boss to see five different players marking the scoresheet against Lisburn Distillery, while an Arthurs hat-trick when facing Tandragee Rovers continued his speedy return to form having spent the best part of six weeks sidelined beforehand.
And with both James Taylor and Marc Orbinson sturdy between the sticks to keep the concession count minimal, the spine has appeared resolute.
“I know that if we get the results, then the table will look after itself”
Lee Feeney
All involved will want to be sharp once more against PSNI – formerly named the RUC, prior to the change in name in line with Northern Ireland’s police service – who have consistency in their selection choices.
22-year-old Matthew Hanna can be singled out as their most prominent goal threat. He has contributed four of The Police’s six league goals, with the versatile Blackstock and Cyrille Bologo Bologo chipping in one apiece.
Hanna has been kept scoreless since a 38th-minute opener against Limavady United in early October, though. A record of only one goal collectively in the five games since the talisman’s most recent strike – Blackstock, a ball-carrying midfielder Feeney also at times used in the defensive line, netting in the return against the Roesiders – they will be eager to improve.
Player to watch:
A gifted Academy player handed his first-team bow at Bangor by Lee Feeney, midfielder Louis Blackstock was a regular feature for the Seasiders last season and regularly impressed with his technique and composure. Made a goalline clearance in the first meeting of the sides at Clandeboye Park. Image from Sarah Harkness.
Having conceded 36 goals, the joint-most in the division alongside Armagh City, a shut-out will likewise be on their radar when they roll out the red carpet.
Kilkeel supremo Feeney will have his charges on alert, given Taggart – a Carrick Rangers icon with over 500 outings with the Amber Army to his name – and his boys can cause issues.
“Those three league matches are the focus of everyone in our dressing room”
Lee Feeney
“There have been moments when it’s been difficult,” the one-club man, by then still playing, admitted to Sky Sports on the theme of motivation in 2017.
“As you get older you can’t do the same things so there have been four of five times when I have contemplated retirement. However, it’s ingrained in me not to give up and keep battling.”
That is a mentality you can expect to see from Taggart, who also played with Bangor’s own Carrickfergus native in defence Ryan Arthur at Rangers, as the second half of the term moves from infant to toddler.
They created problems at Clandeboye Park. Some presentable chances sourced that they will feel they should have buried, and that it took over an hour to break them down was testament to a deep defensive block that kept its shape and resolve for extended periods.
It left the home manager insisting it had been one of their toughest tests of the season, but also full of belief that his warriors have it in them to go the distance and find a route to victory.
After adding the tricky, troublesome Roy to their panel – a former teammate of his now-boss, and the Yellows’ Player of the Season in the Centenary campaign – PSNI have a fresh focal point to their attacks. A new danger who Bangor need to contain come the 2pm kick-off time on Saturday.
No less than that at times in that 2019 title win, when he netted 18 times in 44 appearances, it felt like he was having a Goal of the Season competition within himself. His shooting from distance packs a serious punch, and the 33-year-old who has been there and done it will have that on his mind as he pursues a first goal for the Police sooner rather than later.
There is more than meets the eye about this duel. The rewards for a Bangor win, however, would be plentiful indeed.
Meanwhile, this Saturday also features a North Down derby, with Bangor Reserves hosting their Ards equivalents at Clandeboye Park.
Davy Downes’ side take on their red and blue-shirted rivals with hopes of moving into 4th-position this matchday, with Ards, 7th-placed in the standings, keen to resurrect their form having hit a losing streak of late.
Last time out, the Under-20s hit Knockbreda for six for a much-sought victory at Breda Park, having lost their last three league matches while also suffering elimination from the Junior Cup at the hands of Antrim FC. On the scoresheet were Curtis Kenny with two – albeit he “was claiming” for a hat-trick when one was ruled to have taken the last touch off an opposition defender – Ross Craig, Ryan Devitt and Adam Ambrose, as well as an own goal.
A victory would elevate their points kitty for 2022/23 to 21 from 11 matches, while equally earning them the bragging rights having fallen to a 3-2 defeat at Londonderry Park in the initial clash of the clubs in early October.
“I’m really looking forward to it, and it’s a game the players are looking forward to,” explained Downes, whose troops contest the first of a double-header against Ards with a return fixture next midweek.
“It’s a player’s game, it’s one they want to go out and play and do their best to win.
“The first time we played Ards, it was on a Wednesday night at Londonderry Park, they had a fair few first-teamers out and they went 3-0 up, and then we went at them and pegged them back to 3-2.
“It’s a player’s game, it’s one they want to go out and play and do their best to win”
Davy Downes
“I told Lee that I want as many young players out there as possible, obviously before we played against those first-teamers and you want to push yourself against them, that’s how you judge yourself. And he was happy to go with that – ultimately that’s what you want in a manager as well, someone who’s going to help give the youth a chance to impress.
“As a player, you want to develop, and that’s how you move up so you’re knocking on the door of the firsts.”
Downes also reflected on an emphatic defeat of Knockbreda last Friday, singling out a handful of top performers.
“I thought Adam Ambrose was out of this world, for a debut I thought he was really good,” he beamed on 18-year-old Ambrose, who joined the club this month and converted a penalty at Breda Park.
“I’d saw Ethan (Boylan) shaping up to take the penalty but I gestured to him to give it to Adam, he was just brimming with confidence and he stepped up and scored it (to make it 3-0).”
“The players are enjoying being here and enjoying training, and that’s good to see”
Davy Downes
He added: “You’ve guys coming down from the firsts like Ross (Craig), he always works hard and gives 100% every time. Ally Ferguson’s the same, he works hard and gives everything.
“You don’t get any sulking or complaining from those who are sitting on the bench either, in fact they’re the ones providing the craic and the humour. The players are enjoying being here and enjoying training, and that’s good to see.”
Elsewhere, the club is delighted to confirm that the Irish Cup last-16 face-off against Crusaders at Clandeboye Park has been selected for live television screening by BBC Sport NI.
The match against the Premiership Crues will take place on Friday 3rd February, as the hosts aim to spring a famous upset on the competition holders. In what will be a famous day for the Seasiders irrespective of the result, with the team being televised for the first time in a generation, kick-off against Stephen Baxter’s north Belfast panel that night is at 7:45pm.
| Intermediate Cup | Third Round (select ties) | |
| Banbridge Town | vs | Greenisland |
| Limavady United | vs | Valley Rangers |
| Moyola Park | vs | Dollingstown |
| Portstewart | vs | Armagh City |
In other news, Bangor Ladies’ pre-season is now in swing, and Ladies manager Ethan Boylan and his crew remain on the lookout for players to join the club.
Preparations are taking place on Sunday afternoons at present, from 1pm to 2:30pm at Clandeboye Park, with all players aged 14 and above welcome to join.
If interested, you can register by contacting either girlsacademy@bangorfc.com or BangorLadiesFC@outlook.com to get involved and be part of the squad going forward.
Sticking with the women’s sector, there is palpable excitement ahead of the first piece of competitive football associated with the Girls Academy this Sunday, when Under-10 and Under-12 teams will represent in the South Belfast Youth Football League (SBYFL) this Sunday.
“Another important and exciting milestone for the club,” enthused the club’s Head of Women’s Football Michelle Crawford.
“There has been a lot of hard work on and off the pitch from so many people to get to this point. The future’s definitely bright as this is just the beginning for the Girls Academy.”
Featured image from Jordan Connolly/Life Through A Lens NI.
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