Portadown 2 v 0 Coleraine

Saturday 4th September 2010
(Northern) Irish Premiership
Shamrock Park, Portadown
Admission: £10.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 573
Match Rating: 3

It proved somewhat of a challenge to find a game on my latest day trip to Northern Ireland, with the Ryanair flight from Stansted now timed later to arrive at Belfast City Airport at 13.25, and the only match in the top two divisions in the Belfast area today, Linfield at home to Crusaders, was postponed due to international call-ups. The only possibilities left were a trip to Carrickfergus to watch Carrick Rangers in the Championship (2nd tier), Glenavon (although the train would only arrive in Lurgan 4 minutes before kick-off) and therefore I settled on heading for Portadown, which was reached by catching a bus to Belfast city centre, and then an intercity train bound for Dublin to Portadown. A very brisk 20 minute walk from Portadown station to Shamrock Park saw me taking my seat just as the teams were walking onto the pitch .

Shamrock Park is quite an odd ground currently, in the process of long-term development, although no building works are currently evident. It is an all-seater stadium but with several unused areas. The stadium used to house a stock car circuit, but this has built on and so spectators are close to the pitch. Along one length of the pitch is a very modern stand which offers excellent views of the action with no pillars to get in the way. An odd feature of this length is that there is no fence or railings of any kind bordering the pitch, quite unique in my experiences across many leagues and levels of football. Behind one of the goals is an fairly small stand set some way behind the goal which houses away supporters. Opposite the main stand there is the only traditional stand which used to be the main stand housing the changing rooms, but today just a handful of spectators used this stand. The stand is quite small - the other half of this length just has an overgrown grass bank. Plans are apparently in place to demolish this old stand for a new modern stand like the current main stand. Behind the other goal is also a disused and out of bounds area - here too there are plans for a new stand. If all the plans come to fruition, Shamrock Park should be quite an impressive facility. The programme was a very reasonable effort, in full colour with interesting articles and stats to read, as well as a copious amount of photos of recent match action, although maybe on the short side with just 20 pages.

This game was between two teams in the lower reaches of the table. Portadown had gained four points from their opening four games, and in midweek, they had a quite bizarre game against Premiership newcomers, Donegal Celtic, falling 0-2 behind, before hitting back with four goals, only to concede two goals in added on time at the end of the game to draw 4-4. Portadown are a decent side, finalists in the Irish Cup last season, and they beat Skonto Riga in the Europa League this season and were unfortunately to go out by one goal on aggregate in the next round - a very decent showing compared to how most Northern Irish clubs fare in European competitions. As for Coleraine, the season has been an absolute shocker so far, and unexpectedly so. Traditionally one of the strongest teams outside of Belfast, they threatened to challenge right at the top of the league last season before falling away badly. However, they have opened this season with five straight defeats, and have yet to even score a goal. They are a better side than that, and conceding only 9 goals in those five matches points to a team that haven't been outclassed, but the longer the poor run continues, confidence will be destroyed and so points are needed on the board as soon as possible if they are to avoid a catastrophic season.

Not for the first time, I left glorious sunshine behind in south-east England to be greeted by drizzly rain in Northern Ireland, and to match, the game itself was quite a tepid affair between two teams clearly lacking in confidence. The first half was lacking in real clear-cut chances and a goalless scoreline at half-time was no surprise. However, eight minutes into the second half, Portadown took the lead when a low driven free-kick into the six yard box by former Charlton youngster Neil McCafferty was turned into his own net by Paul Brown - evidence of when a team's luck is down, it stays down. It was difficult to see Coleraine recovering from this setback given their current plight, and although they battled gainly, they carried precious little threat in the final third and the game was as good as over when Portadown scored their second on 69 minutes when the goalkeeper was beaten to a ball at the edge of the area by former Millwall striker, Kevin Braniff, who passed the ball into the empty net from a tight angle. Coleraine did actually hit the woodwork twice, but in truth Portadown held out for a comfortable and deserved victory to leave Coleraine still pointless and goalless, four points adrift at the foot of the table.

Coleraine 1 v 3 Bohemians

Saturday 27th February 2010
Setanta Cup Group 2
The Showgrounds, Coleraine
Admission: £8.00
Pogramme: £2.00
Attendance: 500 (estimate)
Match Rating: 3

My latest day-trip to Northern Ireland had plenty of twists and turns before I finally ended up in Coleraine. At the time of booking the flights, I had several games to choose from, however since then every game in the Belfast area had been re-arranged, meaning a longer trek than anticipated was required to catch a game. The chances of getting to watch a game looked remote in the days leading up to Saturday, as Northern Ireland was being badly affected by heavy rain and snow. I finally decided on going to the north of Northern Ireland, to watch the interesting looking all-Ireland Setanta Cup competition match at Coleraine against the Dublin based Bohemians. Even this looked like it might not work out, as my flight from London Stansted to Belfast City Airport was delayed due to poor weather conditions meaning that I had a desperate run from the aircraft cabin to nearby Sydenham train halt in less than 5 minutes. Somehow I made it.

The train journey from Sydenham to Coleraine is a comfortable one, involving a change of trains at Belfast Central and then about an hour train ride through the heart of rural Northern Ireland. With the train arriving in Coleraine just half an hour before kick off, it was lucky that the ground is located almost adjacent to the train station. Entrance was a reasonable £8, and the programme was attractive looking and in colour, although generally lacking in much detail or interesting information. The Coleraine Showgrounds is a very decent stadium by Northern Irish standards, with one impressive seated grandstand, terracing behind both goals with cover across the width of the penalty area (only one end was open today) and a large bank of terracing along the opposite side to the grandstand. A major downside of the ground is the tall metal fencing which surrounds three of the four sides of the ground. Such fencing not only partially obstructs the view of the action, but it is also certainly a dark reminder of the "bad old days" of football violence. It has been planned to remove this fencing for some time now – the sooner the better.

It was difficult to predict what kind of game this would be. Coleraine went into the game in excellent form, up in fourth place in the Northern Irish Premiership, had won their last three games, including victories at Windsor Park against Linfield, and also away to Cliftonville. Today, they understandably rested most of their first team players considering they are currently in a sequence of playing every midweek. They would also need something approaching a miracle to qualify from the group stages, needing to win by two clear goals today and then hope for a low-scoring draw in the final group game between Bohemians and Glentoran in a couple of weeks time. There was a place in the team for the exciting Rory Patterson however, scorer of 33 goals already this season, almost twice as many as the next highest scorer in the league, which has earnt him a call up to the Northern Ireland squad - a rare feat indeed for a player plying his trade in the Northern Irish league. Today's visitors were Bohemians, League of Ireland (Republic of Ireland) champions for the last two seasons, and a professional club, whereas Coleraine are only part-timers, and so this match would surely be a tall order for the Northern Irish outfit. What might have levelled the playing field somewhat was that this was Bohemians’ first competitive game of 2010 - their league campaign begins next week.

The match started in explosive fashion, with the home side taking the lead in the very first minute through Rory Patterson, who coolly lobbed the keeper. Coleraine indeed looked the better side to start with, against a sluggish Bohemians team, having other good chances to extend their lead, but against the run of play, Bohemians equalised when a ball was nodded in from close range following a corner. Patterson should have put Coleraine back in front just before half time with an almost identical chance from which he earlier scored, but this time the ball dropped agonisingly wide of the goal.

Going into half time, Coleraine could consider themselves unlucky to only be on level terms, however the second half was a completely different story, as Bohemians completely controlled the game. They took the lead a couple of minutes into the second half when a ball was finally struck firmly into the goal following a flurry of blocked shots. The game was sealed eight minutes from time thanks to a fumble from the Coleraine goalkeeper landing at the feet of a Bohemians striker to tuck the ball away from 6 yards.

And so, despite Coleraine's strong first half showing, this match went to form, as League of Ireland clubs generally fare much better than their Northern Irish counterparts in this competition, and Bohemians now look certain to qualify for the knock-out stages barring a heavy defeat in their final group game and a mathematical miracle. As for the Setanta Cup competition, the concept is great, pitching teams from both sides of the Irish border against each other. However, it has been dogged by logistical difficulties, most notably the fact that the two leagues play at different times of the year, and this year, two of the participants, Derry City and Cork City, having to pull out of the competition midway through. Rumours have it that this will be the last time this competition is played, which would be a shame, but hopefully some way can be found to revamp the competition to make it fit in better with the schedules of clubs from both sides of the border.