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Gary Macartney
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At
most clubs quality goalscorers are hard to find. During
the 80's however, Glentoran had five forwards who all
scored over 100 goals for the club, Blackledge, Manley,
Mullan, Jameson and Gary Macartney. |
| 'G-Force'
as he was known to supporters came to Glentoran in June
1986, as a 26 year old. Already a proven goalscorer
with 264 in 317 appearances for the RUC, Gary quickly
found his goal-touch at the Oval, scoring 4 goals in a
pre-season match against Dundela, and scored his first
competitive goal in only his secnd match away to Bangor.
By the end of his first season Gary had scored 28 goals,
won Co. Antrim, Irish Cup and Gold Cup medals and was
selected for the Irish League team v the League of Ireland.
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| Gary Macartney's
Playing Record at the Oval |
| Season |
Appearances |
Goals |
| 1986-87 |
45 |
28 goals |
| 1987-88 |
38 + 4 as sub |
18 goals |
| 1988-89 |
54 |
34 goals |
| 1989-90 |
54 |
39 goals |
| 1990-91 |
36+ 4 as sub |
29 goals |
| 1991-92 |
30 + 4 as sub |
16 goals |
| 1992-93 |
24 + 5 as sub |
20 goals |
| 1993-94 |
22 + 6 as sub |
11 goals |
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Within four seasons Gary had passed the 100 goals target
for Glentoran and won league, cup and other honours
including Player of the Year awards. At one stage
even the then Aston Villa manager Graham Taylor showed
an interest in signing him. Like Ian Wright at
Arsenal who also came into senior football in his mid-20s,
Gary seemed to get better with age.
During the 1989-90 season, Gary had by far his best
season in a Glentoran shirt as he scored 39 goals in
54 appearances. In the course of that season Gary
played a big part in the departure of Roy Coyle from
Linfield. As Glentoran beat Linfield 7 times that season,
Gary hit the hammer blows with 9 goals in the seven
matches, even when he didn't score, during the Co Antrim
Shield Final, he managed one of the penalties in our
win on penalties over the Blues.
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Over the next four seasons, Gary still found the net
regularly until he decided to hang up his boots in senior
football and return to RUC in August 1994, where he
still regularly found the net.
Looking back over his career one wonders if he had
joined us early in his career, just how many goals he
would have scored, nevertheless 193 goals in 303 starts
is still good enough to put Gary 4th in the all-scoring
charts at the Oval, behind all-time greats Sammy Hughes,
Fred Roberts and Trevor Thompson. Good company
isn't it?
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