Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

The Belfast Telegraph reports that the IFA could face a bill approaching £500,000 after settling an unfair dismissal case, brought by former Chief Executive Howard Wells, out of court. Wells was fired months after he began internal grievance procedures, citing anti-English racism within the Association. David Bowen, who held the post before Wells, was also awarded an enormous pay off when he was replaced at the helm of Northern Ireland’s football governing body back in 2005. During Wells’ tenure at Windsor Avenue, he became incredibly unpopular with supporters, and his dismissal was widely welcomed. Admittedly the former Chief Executive proved a consistent advocate of a multi-sports stadium at the site of the former Maze prison, which enthused few fans, but otherwise the animosity which he attracted was puzzling. It was commonly perceived that Wells’ stewardship coincided with a spell of excessive commercialism at the IFA. However, for years football people had bemoaned a lack of...

This will be your lot today I'm afraid, due to an engagement. Still it's a goody. For the fifth time in five years Ballymena have put Glentoran to the sword, at the Oval. Kevin Kelbie scored both United goals in a 2-1 win. Extremely disappointed that I couldn't be there. Still, what a tonic for a team that were rooted to the bottom of the table.

The Barclays Premier League begins next weekend and Liverpool new boy Alberto Aquilani could be called into immediate action against Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield (pending medicals). Closer to home the rather grandly titled Carling Premiership kicks off on Saturday. Perennial favourites, Glentoran and Linfield, face trickier opening fixtures than they might ideally have chosen. The reining champions face Distillery in Lisburn whilst David Jeffrey’s shower travel to Coleraine. However all eyes (or at least these eyes) will be trained on the Showgrounds where Roy Walker’s Ballymena United side begins its title challenge against Cliftonville. The Sky Blues’ pre-season has been rather compact this year and I have only managed to attend one of the friendly matches. It was a rather patchy display against Dunmurry Rec, which the senior outfit eventually won by three goals to one. That game saw the debut of former international player Andy Smith, a striker of whom much will be expecte...

Its incestuous deal with Linfield Football Club is partly responsible for the mess in which the Irish F.A. finds itself as regards an international stadium. The local governing body signed a contract which stipulated that Northern Ireland would play at Windsor Park for a century, with all the extra revenue that guaranteed the venue’s owners. No unambiguous clause, demanding that the crumbling stadium be maintained in accordance with the requirements of international football, was included. The I.F.A. has helped Linfield improve a valuable capital asset which the club has subsequently allowed to fall into disrepair, but it is still obliged either to use the stadium or pay compensation for a broken contract. Which is not to consider the fortune that our administrators have paid to use a stadium which they helped to finance, damaging the competitiveness of the league which it is their responsibility to oversee and compromising the cross community credentials of that competition and th...

Deirdre Nelson, the Ballymena councillor who recently defected from the DUP, has officially announced her intention to fulfil council duties as a member of the Conservative party. It is, admittedly, a little curious that Nelson’s disillusionment with her former party seems to date from Ian Paisley’s departure as leader. The North Antrim MP’s rabble rousing style hardly conformed to the inclusive, pan-UK unionism which the Conservatives espouse. But that is the type of politics which the councillor explicitly endorsed when she explained her decision to colleagues at the council’s offices at Ardeevin, according to the Ballymena Times . “I have watched, with interest, the recent moves by the Conservative Party to begin to steer Northern Ireland away from sectarian politics into normal UK politics and to ensure that Northern Ireland fulfils (its) role as an integral and necessary part of the United Kingdom, in which all traditions are welcomed. “This, coupled with the recent visit by Da...

In rather unlikely circumstances Carlisle did in fact avoid relegation. A comfortable 2-0 home win against Millwall, who were themselves engaged in an attempt to secure a favourable play off position, in conjunction with Brighton’s defeat of Stockport, ensured the Cumbrians’ proverbial ’Great Escape’. And more good news in the Irish League. The Gibson Cup will not this year reside amongst the forces of darkness. In a dramatic final day’s proceedings, Glentoran wrested the championship away from Linfield. Hope it smarts David Jeffrey.

The Observer reports this morning that the International Football Association Board (meeting in Belfast next week) will discuss adding an extra five minutes to half time, because it is concerned that, “players and referees have no time for rest at some stadiums after walking to the dressing room”. Poor mites! It has not been lost on the paper that the extra minutes would also enable the generation of considerably greater advertising revenue for FIFA and TV companies. Not too many years ago half time lasted just ten minutes. Frankly, if young men cannot rest and be out on the field ready to play another half in fifteen minutes, then they should not be considered professional athletes and should seek another profession. As usual it would be fans who actually attend matches in the cheap seats who would be most inconvenienced, to the benefit of TV companies, armchair spectators and corporate hospitality types who get an extra few minutes to quaff champagne and network, without anythin...

Whatever family delights Christmas Day can provide, for me the essence of the season is Boxing Day Irish League football. It offers much the year's largest crowds and frequently it is a rare occasion for Northern Irish fans to feel that they are attending a 'proper' big match. I have spectated at a number of seasonal Big Two clashes, including the famous occasion when the sides took to the pitch with an invisible white ball on a snow white surface, but for me Boxing Day normally features Ballymena United versus Coleraine and all the local rivalry which that fixture entails. Tomorrow Ballymena host the Gasmen at the Showgrounds hoping to extend a four game winning streak. Points have been at a premium for Roy Walker's men this season, but wins against Glentoran and Linfield suggest a big derby win in eminently possible. So hear's hoping that Kevin Kelbie bangs in a couple and sends Coleraine home with a sound beating. I'm convinced that the Sky Blues are not...

I hope they ultimately win the league, but what a delight to see Glentoran vanquished by a late Kevin Kelbie strike at the oval yesterday! Ballymena may still be bottom but we're too good to go down. Good luck to both the Sky Blues and Glentoran on Boxing Day.

I couldn't let this go past without a plug. Ballymena United will grace Sky Sports 1 tonight , as the game against Newry City is broadcast throughout the UK. The mind boggles. For those who can get to the Showgrounds tonight value for money is to be had. Admission is £3 for adults and U16s get in free. Let's hope Walkers' men play like they did against Linfield and don't reproduce some of their other form so far this season. If you can't make it, crack open a can and settle into your favourite armchair or (if like me you are a freeview pleb) get yourself down to the pub!

My first reaction this morning upon learning that Irish League referees, led by infamous Linfield fan Davy Malcolm, were considering strike action to get higher match fees, I suspect may have been shared with other supporters. ‘An extra £50? For that lot? They’re incompetent! I wouldn’t give them 50p’ and so on. This is, after all, a group of men (and indeed women) who count amongst their number the appalling Frankie Hiles, a prancing, grinning imbecile from Coleraine who once expressed the opinion on local television that nothing was sweeter than seeing a team from Ballymena being defeated (albeit that the interview was concerned on that occasion with rugby). Hiles had officiated Ballymena United games on countless occasions before and has done so on many more since those remarks, with predictable consequences. An apposite analogy might be Mike Riley (from Leeds) admitting his loathing for all things Mancunian in an interview ostensibly about rugby league whilst conducting a car...

Long may it continue ! I'd settle for this come next May. The restyled Irish League gets underway this Saturday. Ballymena have a new manager and appear to be playing football on the ground this year. It's difficult to tell from a couple of friendlies how that'll develop as the season gets going properly. Our opener is against Glentoran who will be seeking revenge for a 4-2 defeat last year.

Recently I highlighted potential for chaos and confusion as the IFA finalised the composition of their new invitational league which is due to kick off next season. I questioned the manner in which 14 domestic licences were allocated but suggested that, having allotted these licences, the IFA should now issue invitations for their new top tier, to licence holding clubs, based on last season’s league position. Of course the IFA instead used Byzantine criteria (established last season) which allocated points for various aspects of infrastructure and organisation within the clubs, rather than simply judging their successful licence application as proof of adequacy in this respect and turning to comparative success on the field. Predictably potential has been realised and chaos and confusion HAVE ensued. Firstly, for submitting their application thirty minutes late, Portadown were excluded from the league. Subsequently an appeal against this draconian penalty was rejected. One of...

The blog you’re about to read deals with something I know very little about. "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose", mutter regular readers. On this occasion I have an excuse for ignorance though, as my chosen topic is the Irish Football Association’s planned invitational league. You see, the IFA itself has yet to actually decide the format next season’s senior domestic league will assume, despite the fact that it will kick off in less than four months time. This would be rather astonishing in any other UEFA jurisdiction, but in Northern Ireland it has barely raised an eyebrow, because frankly we are accustomed to bungling and confusion from our governing body. They have announced a broad intention that there should be 12 teams in the new league and that those teams will be selected from a group of 14 which have been granted ‘domestic licences’ by the IFA. Otherwise the details are sketchy and have not yet been finalised. A clue as to the league’s composition c...

In May 1989, still some six months before the Berlin Wall fell, Ballymena United lifted the Irish Cup at the Oval in Belfast, Paul Hardy’s back heel accounting for Larne in the final. The Braidmen have not lifted a senior trophy since and on Saturday another manager announced his departure from the club . Like all his predecessors since Alex McKee masterminded the cup win, Tommy Wright’s tenure at the club has ended in failure. The big ex-goalkeeper has been in charge for three seasons having previously enjoyed comparative success as manager of Limavady United. Although he cites personal concerns amongst the reasons for his resignation, the tenor betrays a disappointment with results and the conviction that he has taken the Sky Blues as far as he could. Wright traces his disillusion to the end of February. Around Christmas Ballymena had strung together a fine run of wins and threatened to mount credible campaigns in the Irish Cup and in the league, where a strong finish might have ...

From the beginning I have been sceptical about Nigel Worthington as Northern Ireland manager, but in the wake of his latest squad announcement I am throwing all ambivalence to the wind and pleading – JUST GO WORTHLESS! In order to ingratiate himself (and re-ingratiate the IFA) with Linfield and their rabble of supporters, Worthless has picked no less than three of their players in his squad to play Georgia next week. No other Irish League players are selected. Dean Shiels, Grant McCann, Tony Capaldi and Ivan Sproule, successful players in fulltime leagues are all omitted. Shiels is playing regularly and scoring regularly for Scotland’s third best side yet still Peter Thompson is preferred, despite repeatedly looking out of his depth when previously capped. Grant McCann has played well for Northern Ireland in the past and has posed a potent goal-threat, he scored at the weekend for Scunthorpe – Michael Gault is in the squad ahead of McCann. Tony Capaldi looks forward to an F.A. C...

Ballymena United boss Tommy Wright has been recognised for the startling turnaround he has affected at the club. The Sky Blues’ manager has been awarded with a deserved Harp Manager of the Month award for December . As you will observe, the trophy for this achievement features some manner of bizarre hexagonal pattern reminiscent of the Giant’s Causeway. Wright turned down the opportunity to take up a position as Norwich City’s goalkeeping coach last Friday. He will remain instead at the Ballymena Showgrounds and attempt to extend United’s 12 game unbeaten run to 13 as we face Newry City in the Irish Cup on Saturday. A boisterous Ballymena support is expected to roar on their team, given the early departure of several buses on Saturday morning. These are changed times from the beginning of the season when Wright’s charges went on a 6 game losing streak . It is therefore unsurprising to read that Tommy feels some solidarity with Sam Allardyce, who was sacked from Wright’s old club...

I’m almost reluctant to raise the subject lest my acknowledgment presages a dramatic return to type, but I can no longer ignore the remarkable form being shown by Ballymena United. The chant “United are back” has rung out on innumerable false dawns since the Sky Blues’ last major trophy in 1989, but yesterday at the Oval it carried the stiffened intent of 12 games without loss as it echoed across the East Belfast gloom. I have retained a degree of cynicism during the unbeaten run, although I’ve welcomed the increased resolve and spirit which have enabled the team to string together a consistent series of results. Beating Glentoran 4-2 , away from home, having twice fallen behind, is an achievement of a different magnitude however and the manner in which this accomplishment was realised has sparked in me the sneaking suspicion that perhaps what Tommy Wright is constructing at the Showgrounds could be genuinely special. Ballymena proved yesterday that not only can they eke out results,...

Earlier this season David Jeffrey lied about Ballymena United fans and gifted those with an agenda against local football and against perceived unionist fans . Unsurprisingly the fact that Ballymena's fans have been unequivocally vindicated with the IFA finding that there was " no basis of fact in the allegations made by Mr Jeffrey " has attracted less publicity. Mud sticks and the damage has already been done by the bald obese liar. Jeffrey and Linfield have been given offical warnings by the IFA - this is of course an ineffective slap on the wrist.

In 1984, seeking a government grant to fund the completion of the North Stand, Linfield FC needed the Irish FA to sign a long term lease in order to secure the funds. With Linfield being the IFA’s pet club, a contract was quickly formulated and so cosy was the relationship between the two that no-one within the Inept, Farcical and Absurd governing body bothered to include any release clauses. 23 years later Linfield continue to receive handouts, rulings and clientalism of all kinds from Windsor Avenue, but despite the hundreds of thousands of pounds they receive annually from hosting Northern Ireland international matches, they have let their stadium fall into a state of unusable disrepair. Of course if you deal with the despicable it doesn’t matter how much toadying you do, it doesn’t matter how much you bend your own rules to accommodate them, it doesn’t matter how partially you favour their interests, they will screw you over whenever things don’t entirely go their way. A lesson th...