The Steel and Sons Final line-up has been decided for another year, and the two teams that will jostle to make Christmas the most wonderful time of the year for themselves and their supporters have been deduced.
Through six rounds of competition, all cup hopefuls bar two within the intermediate County Antrim FA sphere have had their chances of festive glory dashed.
Crumlin Star and Comber Rec have battled hard and well to be involved in a special showpiece – that word ‘battle’ very much applies to how their respective semi-finals panned out – and come the 25th December, one of them will be crowned Steel Cup champions at the other’s expense.
This 128-year-old tournament’s decider is one of the most unique traditions you will find anywhere in world football; after all, how many Finals do you know of that are played on Christmas Day?
Not very many. And that’s why thousands of people, even at risk of domestic wrath, flock to Seaview to take in a football feast.
I know I’ll be doing just that. There aren’t many more special sensations around than braving the cold chills of winter on Christmas morning just to watch 22 men kick a ball along an astro pitch in north Belfast.
The trophy on offer at the end, though, makes this so much more than ordinary.
Qualifying for the decider were Star, from the Ardoyne area of north Belfast, who earned the right to contest in the Final three days after Ards Peninsula side Comber booked their ticket.
Both semi-finals lived up to the billing in drama and quality. Extra-time was required in each – and a penalty shoot-out in one – as two matches that were predicted to be tight-knit were exactly that in practice.
On Friday night, in a game where the two teams involved were split by two flights in the Amateur League pyramid, calling it a mismatch in advance still seemed a dangerously far-fetched assertion.
So it proved. Greenisland, from Division 1B, seized the initiative against Premier Division adversaries Comber after Conal McWilliams-Small shot the east Antrim boys into the lead.
Their journey ended in August with an 8-0 loss to eventual champions and holders Bangor a year prior but, with the calendar having been upgraded a year, dreams of reaching the decider were within touching distance.
The ‘Rec weren’t to lie down and let themselves be beaten, though; after Harry Grierson struck in the second half to peg the tie back to even terms, the Parkway charges hoped to carry any favourites tag notion on their backs – but this affair wasn’t to be settled in 90.
It remained 1-1, necessitating at least an extra 20 minutes to determine the result on a night when the Seaview floodlights illuminated a darkened late-autumn skyline.
Penalties could’ve followed but, only four minutes from the end, that possibility was struck off when rapturous celebrations were sparked in the yellow corner.
Grierson doubled up, and he may as well have wrote his name into the Comber history books there and then as he fired his team into a state of ecstasy and the Steel decider.
Final score, 2-1 Comber. That punched their spot into their first showpiece in 24 years.
They competed in the last Steel Final of the 20th Century, falling by the odd goal in five to Dundela in 1999, while their sole trophy lift in the competition came eight years prior as they put Brantwood under the sword and bested them 4-1.
For Glenkeen Avenue-based Greenisland, a thoroughly momentous journey through the competition ranks was to end in agonising fashion, but it is an adventure that they will look back on with a smile.
That journey included one the most improbable upsets in the competition’s recent history when Lee McCartney’s squad visited PIL high flyers Ballymacash Rangers in the last-16 to spring an almighty shock, besting them 3-2 at the Bluebell and helping ensure that an all-NAFL line-up was secured for the quarters.
Gareth McKeown’s Comber, however, avoided the exit door and stayed true to their guns in making sure the Ards Peninsula is accounted for next month.
With the job done at Seaview, their attentions turned to east Belfast on Monday night as they found out their Final foe.
And what a cracker this turned out to be, this all-Premier tussle between Derriaghy CC and Crumlin Star.
On the same evening that a drab and dour goalless draw between Coleraine and Glentoran was screened for the whole UK to see, those that trekked to Blanchflower Park to witness a would-be six-goal thriller were the real winners.
The intensity never let up.
When the first goal arrived, three more followed before half an hour had even been played; Fra Nolan struck first for Star on 16 minutes, Billy Cassells had levelled up for Derriaghy within a minute before Noel Halfpenny and Joe McNeill finishes appeared to put those in green shirts in control.
Football is non-linear by nature, though, and Owen Forsythe’s Derriaghy were back within one before the break when Curtis Black slotted home. The boys from Seymour Hill, cast as slight underdogs by consensus before kick-off, were never out of the picture, and as Star’s Dee Fearon spurned a chance to kill it dead 12 minutes from time when he struck the post from a penalty, Black took full advantage to force extra-time.
The forward’s second goal of the game, a sweeping drive that arrowed into the bottom right corner, had the Seycon Park troops level once more and with the wind in their sails.
Both halves were a contrast. The first was a purist’s dream, an open-ended spectacle where the action flowed at both ends and ball-playing football created chances in abundance.
The second, meanwhile, was closer-fought and featured a couple of meaty challenges – but at no point did it overstep the mark.
Extra-time continued to thrill but produced no goals, meaning penalties was the only option remaining. A high-quality game continued into a high-stakes scenario; nine well-taken spot-kicks before the vivacious Cassells stepped up in a bid to force sudden death.
But it wasn’t to be. Where penalties are concerned, there are losers when there are winners, and after Star stopper Shane Harrison palmed away the young forward’s kick, a sea of green rushed to the stand to take in the acclaim.
Paul Trainor’s warriors, who also carry the support of two-time Irish Cup-winning supremo Eddie Patterson, have had their spirits boosted following the new-look redevelopment of Marrowbone Sports Complex that will house them. Now, the north Belfast side will bid to keep up the feelgood factor and add a first-ever Steel Cup to their Intermediate Cup glory earlier this year – they hadn’t even reached a Final in the former before.
Derriaghy’s wait for a first showpiece agonisingly continues, but they played their part in a classic encounter that will surely stand to them going forward.
The stage was set for the 25th December there and then.
Father Christmas has a present to deliver for a still-to-be-determined recipient. We know it will be one of two.
All-NAFL Finals are rare these days – this is just the third this millennium – and that will add fuel to the fire, spicing up the occasion despite the anticipated frosty tinges of the day itself.
Indeed, Star and Comber will get a taste of each other in advance given that the two will lock horns in a Border Cup semi-final next week. The winner faces west Belfast-based Willowbank in the showpiece, but now, some will look at it as a pre-match for the Steel decider in six weeks; who’s best-placed to do it?
Well, this tournament is constant theatre, and the last chapter has twists and turns untold.
The pen writing these final few pages will be the same one that engraves the winning team’s name on the trophy and into the historical archives.
Only one game remains to decide everything.
Featured image from Jackie Henry.
- It’s unfair to put blame at feet of Linfield and Cliftonville for Irish Cup Final crowd disorder
A 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 savour that, for the most part, featured backing from both sides that supported… 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 families
Let’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 expenses which, in themselves, are rising amid a general rise in the cost… 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 goal
Changes 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 effect as part of a radical shake-up of the intermediate levels of the… 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 great
There’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 seven points adrift of top spot, the peak years of David Jeffrey’s tenure… 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 glory
Finally, 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 in their pursuit of that elusive ninth Irish Cup – until a man… Read more: Ending Cliftonville’s Irish Cup drought proves Jim can fix it… now he must target league glory
Football Chatters 
Leave a comment