The year 2023 is almost done, and throughout the Irish League, it has proved to be 12 pulsating and eventful months where a great deal of new memories were made for all involved to savour. In Ballymacash Rangers’ case, 2023 was also the first total year the club has spent as a NIFL-associated club – and it’s also been a cycle that will stand the test of time.
Indeed, the early portion of 2024 will be likewise given that the Lisburn outfit will be primed for their first-ever Irish Cup Fifth Round tie, while at the time of release, the side are right on the eve of a date with the Irish League champions Larne in the County Antrim Shield semi-finals; a swift progression in their participation in a near-130-year-old competition for the very first time.
A first completed campaign in the Premier Intermediate League, the third division, was one that saw them emerge on top over many grand old staples of football in Northern Ireland, their runner-up placing rewarded with a shot at promotion to the Championship through the play-off and the opportunity to become a senior-status institution, although the outcome was to be one of the more agonising moments of The ‘Cash’s year as they just fell short.
Overall, the picture has been painted of a club that is ambitious and seriously keen to have a happier ending regarding their season this time, all the while continuing their progress off the pitch as a new sports pavilion is added to their Bluebell home. There is much promised and plenty in store as Ballymacash bid to remain on their intriguing upward trajectory.
On June 3, 2023, the final curtain came down on a history-making season for Ballymacash Rangers Football Club.
It ended on a decidedly sombre note. Knowing that they required at least two goals in the second leg of their play-off tie against Knockbreda to retain hope of achieving a meteoric promotion to the Championship, a low-key goalless draw was the final outcome and a second successive season in the Premier Intermediate League for the Lisburn club was confirmed.
Castlereagh adversaries ‘Breda, afforded an unexpected lifeline, had grasped it with a two-handed grip and masterminded another great escape.
A delayed series that was first intended for Institute, the 11th-placed finishers in the second-tier, was passed down to the division’s basement dwellers after Warrenpoint Town dropped out administratively. The yellow shirts, established in the Irish League, rose to the billing – but they had been made to work for their reward.
Indeed, it took a lightning blitz in between The ‘Cash’s opening and closing of the scoring in the first leg for them to truly consolidate their status.
Frontman Zach Barr broke the deadlock. Skipper Jordan Morrison conjured up late hope. Second-half strikes by Lee McGreevy, Igor Rutkowski and Max Greer followed up an own goal right on the stroke of the interval that were to prove critical; those four finishes were what ultimately kept Knockbreda up.
That pulsating encounter at The Bluebell in the west of the city was followed up by that more hard-fought, physical affair in the Castlereagh Hills. No goals could be produced and that, evidently, was that.
The end of a season was not the end of a story, though.
And a heartbreaking end can’t detract from a campaign that offered huge promise for both the present and the future.
The Irish League’s newest debutant, promoted from the regional ranks into the top three tiers for the first time ever, had made quite a splash.
A second-place finish that earned Ballymacash their play-off ticket signified their intent. They bettered Queen’s University, the relegated outfit from the second division the season before.
That they’d even stood a chance of back-to-back promotions going into the warm summer of 2023 was an achievement in itself.
And any teams may not have known about them before certainly did now. Going into the first half of 2023/24, their whirlwind odyssey hasn’t relented and, at the time of writing, they remain undefeated in the PIL and top of the tree in a division that has since expanded by two, from 12 clubs to 14.
That’s not all, either. A County Antrim Shield semi-final beckons for Ballymacash against the reigning Irish League champions, while in 2024, the club will contest its first-ever Fifth Round tie in the Irish Cup… some rise for a club still less than 18 months on from when their PIL journey first started.
There are more chapters unwritten, but a deeper delve into what has come and gone feels appropriate to further set the scene.
A trip to Portstewart on August 23, 2022 marked the beginning of a bold new horizon for a new team in a red-and-white-striped shirt.
Keen on making their presence felt at the earliest opportunity, these new kids on the block did just that at Mullaghacall. The damage was done by half-time; a John Watt own goal 10 minutes in marked their first goal at the third rung before, eight minutes later, one off Jack Smith’s boot went down as their first from their own final touch.
Striker Barr, who’d swapped the Seahawks for new employers, added a third on 39 minutes; the damage was done there and then on the north coast as an ambitious outfit made a first, but not last, defining imprint in the PIL table.
Three goals, three points and a clean sheet. You couldn’t have it much better as far as starts in a fresh league go.
For Ballymacash Rangers, it was a means to go on.
The instant impacts of Smith, who enjoyed a half-season stint in the top-tier with Portadown prior to his switch that summer, and Barr – prolific for Portstewart and fourth in the league’s scoring charts the campaign before – certainly would’ve heartened manager Lee Forsythe and built confidence early on that the tools were there to compete.
In their second league game and first at home, they hit Banbridge Town for six, with Barr and Smith (2) accompanying Justin Armstrong (2) and Joshua Cahoon on the scoresheet, while September’s agenda started with another 3-0 road victory – this time versus Castledawson club Moyola Park at Mill Meadow as Smith, Armstrong and Morrison hit the jackpot.
All told, that was 12 goals and just the one conceded in 270 minutes of football. To say they were taking things like a duck to water felt like an understatement.
Forsythe, not one to get ahead of himself, was keeping his feet firmly planted on the ground where the expectation meter was concerned, though.
“I think we have no chance of winning it (the league title),” the former Ards Rangers supremo told DigiVibe Media following that 6-1 win over The Town. “I think that’s an absolute daydream.
“When you’ve got the likes of established clubs such as the likes of Bangor, and realistically Bangor should win the league, you’d fancy them very, very strongly.
“That isn’t really the expectation (to win the league), we’ve got 80 per cent of the players from the Mid-Ulster League last season… people thought we were going to go out and buy all these players, bring all these players in, but we were never going to do that.
“We’re not here to be easy pickings for anybody. I think for anybody to beat us, you know, they have to be on their game and have to play very, very well”
Ballymacash Rangers manager Lee Forsythe pledged that he would make his team hard to beat in the Premier Intermediate League
“I think it’s a massive jump, and also disrespectful, not only to the likes of Bangor, but also to the likes of Armagh City, the likes of Limavady United, these are real good sides.
“I met with the club at the start of the year, and the ambition they want is to stay in the league. Top six for us would be unbelievable, but I think the club are just delighted to be here and we need to walk before we can run.
“But, in saying that, we’re not here to be easy pickings for anybody. I think for anybody to beat us, you know, they have to be on their game and have to play very, very well. So, as I say, we’ll be taking it game by game.”
The ‘Cash’s fourth league fixture, as it happened, was against the team Forsythe had branded favourites – and it took Adam Neale’s heroics deep into stoppage-time for Bangor to leave Lisburn with a point in late September, with veteran French forward Guillaume Keke having opened the goal count for the hosts well into the second half at a sun-drenched Bluebell.
That 1-1 draw was a result with the potential to prove profound. What it helped confirm was that Ballymacash meant business and, results-wise, they weren’t against nor afraid of ruffling feathers and taking a scalp or two along the way.
If, as Forsythe alluded, the hierarchy wanted progress in the Irish League, they were getting it instantly.
Then again, under their incumbent boss, Ballymacash had already been driven to their highest highs by simply even being in the PIL.
Appointed in October 2020 to succeed legendary former Linfield midfielder Michael Gault and assigned the task firstly of guiding the club out of the Mid-Ulster Football League and into the NIFL ranks, Forsythe fulfilled that objective at a canter in 2022.
The ‘Cash stormed to the title, collecting 80 points from a possible 90 and scoring a staggering 126 goals – that’s an average of over four per game.
A historic season was boosted by the Reserve and Swifts sides clinching title joy, too; the first time ever that a single Mid-Ulster club had claimed three leagues in a single campaign.
Two games were to stand tall above the rest in terms of importance, however – the home and away clashes with St James’ Swifts that would determine whether they would play third-tier football in 2022/23.
Their west Belfast opponents, under the stewardship of former Cliftonville midfield maestro Barry Johnston, would have the fire in their hearts to make the leap into the Irish League. In this two-legged series, though, it was to be Ballymacash’s day.
Round one in Lisburn had them in perfect stead.
Chris Ferguson’s 19th-minute opener was followed five minutes later by Armstrong’s finish to double the lead, and the latter’s brace was completed on the stroke of the hour to ensure that – in conjunction with a clean sheet kept by goalkeeper Ryan Walsh – the hosts would take an assured three-goal lead into the second leg at Donegal Celtic Park.
Perhaps nerves started to jangle when Ciaran Hyland broke the deadlock for St James’, and it was a lead they retained until the interval, but another five-minute salvo had turned the tide back Ballymacash’s way.
Experienced line-leader Michael Moore stroked home their leveller on 59 minutes, Armstrong was tormentor-in-chief again when he netted to put his side ahead for the first time on the day and, despite John Savage equalising nine minutes from time for the hosts, the full-time whistle blew with an aggregate success of five goals to two sealed.
May 21, 2022. History made. Ballymacash Rangers would be taking their talents into the PIL for the very first time.
It was quite the feat.
Founded in 1984 and plying their trade in the fifth-division MUFL Intermediate B as recently as 2013, the medium to long-term intention was to rise through the NIFL structure – their promotion into the third-tier in itself would restore the league to 12 teams, making the division whole again having been an 11-club set-up ever since Lurgan Celtic’s exit in 2019.
For the existing clubs, an all-new away day was added to the agenda, and the modernity of Ballymacash’s ground was something that caught the eye.
Investment in The Bluebell, which comprised an artificial pitch, a 100-seater stand to the west part of the stadium and even space for wildflowers on the side behind the dugouts, meant it was a venue fit for hosting Irish League football and portrayed the ideal vision of a new establishment that was serious about growth.
The club with the distinctive jolly roger on its crest hoped to hoist their flag high and, before the new season began, Forsythe gave a revealing interview with the Sunday Life that set out to onlookers just what he felt his side could achieve.
“I believe what happened is, years ago, a marching band from Ballymacash entered a band contest,” he told firstly of how such a distinctive and unique logo came about.
“They had to register an emblem of some description, but they didn’t have one. So a band member went to the nearest shop and bought a jolly roger and said, ‘this is our flag’. It made the band stand out, so they decided to keep it.
“Years later, in 1984, when Ballymacash Rangers was formed, it made sense to incorporate the flag into the club crest.
“And here we are, nearly 40 years later, with a 20ft jolly roger flying above the ground.”
Adding on what the club intended to achieve in the long term both in terms of on-the-pitch performance and community links off it, the Belfast-based manager also shed light on an inextricable link with the local area.
“The main entity is the Ballymacash Sports Academy, and within that, you have the senior club, the women’s club and the youth section,” continued Forsythe.
“The Sports Academy itself is fan-owned. It’s based on the FC United of Manchester model, with each fan owning a share. It’s a community-driven club that does a lot of work in the community, and in return, the community gets behind the team. We attract big crowds to our home games.
“It’s a club at the heart of its community that has huge potential”
Ballymacash Rangers manager Lee Forsythe expressed enthusiasm about what the club could achieve in the Premier Intermediate League in the 2022/23 campaign.
“The long-term vision is to become a Premiership club and to follow in the footsteps of clubs like Dungannon Swifts and Warrenpoint Town.
“We’re building a new clubhouse that includes changing facilities fit for the top level… the clubhouse can become a genuine community hub and a great source of revenue for the club. It’s a club at the heart of its community that has huge potential.”
Speaking passionately on the future, Forsythe also knew he had a squad that could compete in the present, too.
A panel which comprised the bulk of the squad that achieved promotion a few months prior, as well as statement arrivals such as former Cliftonville, Ards and Carrick Rangers shot-stopper Brian Neeson and highly-rated one-time Glentoran and Glenavon hotshot Dylan Davidson, was projected to fight on all fronts.
And the longer their first-ever PIL crusade endured, the more apparent an aim that became.
As one year flicked to another, Ballymacash could reflect on a momentous year from the top of the PIL table.
Indeed, they didn’t taste defeat in the division until mid-December; Queen’s University, themselves bidding to bounce straight back up, prevailing by the odd goal in five at The Bluebell.
The interluding span saw them add to those first 10 points by securing another 13. Victories against Tobermore United (2-0), Moyola Park (1-0), Limavady United (3-0) and Armagh City (3-0) – all established Irish League outfits and all with clean sheets to boot – accompanied a 2-2 draw with Lisburn Distillery, a game that in itself marked the first-ever broadcasted game on NIFL’s own YouTube channel.
The latter, a local derby referred to in jest as the ‘Bow Street Brawl’ on social media just recently – a nod to the Lisburn-based shopping complex – must have been the ultimate clash of old heritage and new wave.
Distillery’s history comprises European jousts with Benfica and Barcelona, while a handful of domestic football heroes including former Northern Ireland captain Martin O’Neill also made their name at Grosvenor Park. Having been established in 1880 and become a founding member of the Irish League 10 years later, they are over a century older than their new noisy neighbours but, with Johnston having since swapped St James’ for the dugout in Ballyskeagh, the sides proved inseparable on this occasion.
Ballymacash found this to be a regular trend, in that they were the junior team in terms of age, but they weren’t to be left wanting for ability.
And, after overhauling the likes of Moyola – the first-ever winners of the Irish Cup over 140 years ago – Limavady and Armagh, any tentative title ambitions they may have held didn’t appear so far-fetched after all with 23 points from 30 available.
Adding to that, The ‘Cash reached the Steel and Sons Cup semi-finals for the first time – their juggernaut clash with Bangor was won by a single goal from those in yellow and blue – while they also made the Irish Cup Fourth Round, although Banbridge Town were to deny them a shot at competing in the illustrious knock-out tournament in the New Year; a feat which also would have been a club first.
You couldn’t deny they had made an imposing early stamp, with their next challenge naturally to keep soaring in 2023.
And that they did. With an exclusive focus on league action for the rest of the campaign, their points-per-game average remained consistent and, with a few games to go and the play-off spot their main aim, their objective was in their hands.
The battle for the league was eventually won by Bangor – they went on to win the Steel Cup and drop just 11 points en route to the title – but at Clandeboye Park on the day NIFL Chief Executive Gerard Lawlor would be presenting the trophy to the hosts, the visitors that day still had a reward that they could seal there and then.
Ballymacash entered knowing a point would mathematically secure second-place and fend off Queen’s for good.
They were due to face the Students at The Dub in the division’s final day, what would’ve been a winner-takes-all shoot-out should the newly crowned champions secure all three points to go with their title coronation.
How much the stress meter would be ramped up in south Belfast was dependent on whether the visitors could secure a share of the spoils or better in north Down. After Adam Neale was on the mark to net a close-range opener for Bangor, it looked for all the world like that shoot-out scenario would come to fruition but, when The ‘Cash were awarded an opportunity from the penalty spot to bag an equaliser and alleviate the nerves in their penultimate outing, the captain shouldered responsibility and lived up to the billing.
Just two minutes of regulation remained and it could well have been the last chance; Lisburn native Morrison, a regular set-piece aficionado, wasn’t to be fazed, however, as he blasted in from 12 yards and sparked bedlam in the away end.
That was the former Dundela centre-back’s 12th strike of the campaign, which unsurprisingly made him the top-scoring defender in the division.
The full-time whistle blew with the result unbroken at 1-1. Both sets of supporters had cause for celebration.
As the Yellows hoisted the trophy aloft and marked a happy ending, Forsythe and his charges had capped off a stunning crusade of their own – albeit they still had one last score to settle.
That match-up against Queen’s? Well, for being a bit of a dead rubber on the final day of league action, it turned out a thriller, as Keke, Ferguson and Stephen Glasgow put Ballymacash 3-0 up by 35 minutes only to cede that advantage completely after shipping four goals within the next half an hour of play. It took Smith – the club’s top scorer in league play with 15 finishes – and Matthew Parker strikes to swing the pendulum back in their way, signing off with a 5-4 victory that had been secured in scarcely believable fashion.
But as the saying goes, a win’s a win, and it was perfect preparation for a play-off showdown.
Expecting to battle north-west establishment Institute, a Premiership outfit as recently as the Covid-curtailed campaign of 2019/20, at the start of May, a saga instead followed as the IFA’s refusal to hand Warrenpoint a Championship Licence dominated the headlines and caused a delay to the play-offs in the top two tiers taking place.
The ‘Point, second-placed in the Championship and who were preparing to face Dungannon Swifts for Premiership position in their own play-off, instead dropped down to the PIL after the process concluded, in turn sparing ‘Stute and affording Knockbreda an unexpected lifeline.
So, once the play-offs took place in late May and early June, ‘Breda – who ordinarily would have gone down automatically following their rock-bottom placing in the second-tier – had the opportunity to save their skin.
As it materialised, Ballymacash retained their well-earned spot in the two-legged series against a different opponent to what was first planned with neither side having played competitively for a month.
A difficult situation to prepare for on both sides, no doubt.
In practice, and as stated in this piece’s opening, the higher-tiered outfit of the two retained their spot and, after Colin McIlwrath and the Castlereagh club got the better of former boss Forsythe, a new plot to escape the PIL would have to be drafted by the Lisburn squad.
It was a heart-aching close to a long, drawn-out adventure, but you can’t afford to wallow in your misery and dwell on the pain when a new pre-season is right around the corner.
Besides, the positives so far outweighed the negatives that you wouldn’t necessarily have thought the wounds would cut deep.
In the end, the club could count a couple of their own in the PIL Team of the Season – Davidson and Morrison, with the latter penning a professional contract in the off-season such was his importance to the project at hand – and having scored 67 while conceding just 24 in their 27 league outings, they appeared in a healthy position at both ends of the pitch entering a new campaign a matter of months down the line.
Where Ballymacash’s first term was about consolidation, the next was about the foundation and how it would be built upon.
The next steps would, as such, come into effect immediately.
Ballymacash, as expected, haven’t rested on their laurels.
They’ve smashed new ground, too. That Irish Cup Fifth Round glass ceiling has been at long last broken and on the face of it, they have an eminently winnable tie against their one-time Mid-Ulster foes Oxford Sunnyside in 2024.
Meanwhile, their first-ever appearance in the County Antrim Shield has brought about one of the biggest matches in the club’s history.
Irish League champions Larne await at Inver Park, with one particularly ironic twist coming amid their route to that last-four showdown – despite a Knockbreda penalty shoot-out success at The Bluebell, the play-off victors of just a few months prior were eliminated due to a player eligibility issue with the hosts reinstated at ‘Breda’s expense.
Having held their nerve to prevail on penalty kicks in the last-16 away to fellow east Belfast second-tier side Harland and Wolff Welders, a squad that contains a couple of new heroes have already woven more history into their fabric.
Multi-faceted frontman Benny Igiehon, who emulated his current team-mate Smith in swapping Portadown for The ‘Cash after a six-month stint at Shamrock Park, has hit the ground running in red and white. With 10 goals in just nine appearances in the PIL, that tally has him unsurprisingly atop the league’s scoring charts in a closely fought division that also comprises Limavady attacker and ex-Coleraine favourite Ian Parkhill (nine goals), Warrenpoint’s flying forward Steven Ball (six) and crafty Queen’s ace Stewart Nixon (five).
Seeing out title joy in an ultra-competitive third-flight will not be easy, but Ballymacash are on high once more; with 19 points from nine outings to date, although having played more matches than some of the challengers below, they are in first-place and boast an unbeaten league record with five wins and four draws.
Extending back to last campaign, they have gone 15 matches in league play without defeat, and that’s with fellow new boy and 2021/22 PIL top scorer Gary Warwick – the 32-year-old linked up from Newington, with Barr going in the opposite direction during the summer – not having yet ignited and midfield additions like Bradley Porter and Michael Bradley still to chip in with goals.
There is a promising core within the fold and, under Forsythe’s continued tutelage, they will be eager to put right some things they just missed the mark on in the 2022/23 campaign.
With further enhancements to the surrounding area being made to boot, including a pavilion that is under construction and will add to the community culture the club aspires to create, a bright future for one of the Irish League’s freshest faces surely looks to be coming to fruition.
Much work is still to be done, but in 18 months as an Irish League representative, Ballymacash have made massive strides already.
Featured image from Paul Harvey Photography.
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