H&W Welders 1 v 0 Queen's University

Tillysburn Park, East Belfast

Saturday 12th September 2009

IFA Championship 2

Admission: £5.00

Programme: None

This was a game that made possible as a day trip by Ryanair's incredibly cheap flights. Ryanair has its fair share of critics, quite justified a lot of the time, but I've yet to find another means of getting from Essex to Northern Ireland and back for a tenner, and the current flight schedules from Stansted make this a very comfortable day out - touching down at Belfast City airport at 1pm and leaving at 6.30. There are many other possibilities to take in a game in Belfast on a day trip - Glentoran and Dundela (also of the IFA Championship 2) are within easy walking distance of Belfast City Airport, and Linfield and Bangor are comfortably within range using public transport. Cliftonville and Crusaders are also possibilities, although getting back to the airport for when the gate closes at 6pm would be tight and reliant on favourable traffic conditions.

Tillysburn Park is the closest football ground to the airport- almost literally a stone's throw away - all that separates the main terminal building and the ground is a dual carriageway. The ground itself is very neat, tidy and well maintained, and with reasonably pleasant surroundings, surrounded as it is by trees and with mountains in the background. No programmes were issued which was slightly disappointing. This game, in the third tier of Northern Irish football, pitted H&W Welders, last season's Champions, against the students of Queen's University, comfortably the largest university in Northern Ireland. This season, H&W Welders had won both of their opening games, whereas Queen's University had lost both of their opening games, so everything pointed to a comfortable home win. This was not how it panned out, however. In glorious autumnal sunshine, the game was very even, although the Welders certainly edged possessions and shots on goals, but it wasn't too suprising that the game was goalless at half time. The second half continued in a similar vein, although Queen's University barely had a shot on goal in the second half. Mid way through the second half, the Welders scored what proved to be the winner, after a corner was whipped in and headed home at the far post through a crowd of players, indeed there may have been a deflection decieiving the keeper.

On the whole, the 1-0 home win a very fair reflection on the game, with the Welders always slightly the better team, and although Queen's had planty of possession, they never really looked like scoring.