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Alan Patterson
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Alan
Patterson was one of Glentoran finest goalkeepers.
One match in particular stands out and that is the infamous
1988 League Cup Final match against Linfield. |
| THE ROAD
FERRY CUP FINAL 1988-89 at the Oval. This was the first
Glens - Blues meeting of the season and it had been eagerly
anticipated. The Blues had had a good start to the season,
with players like McGaughy and George O'Boyle playing
on form. In addition to this the Blues had signed two
black players from Senegal 'Tony' Coly and 'Sam' Kammal.
Unfortunately the colour of their skin had quite a impact
in the game |
| The teams
ran out to a crowd of over 10,000 on a chilly night at
the Oval. Linfield were met by a hail of what can only
be described as hundreds of bananas. This was to continue
during the game, however when the inevetable storm of
protest came in the following days it was too easily forgotten
by the Blues that while its not right to throw bananas,
singing the songs the Blues 'fans' sung was just as bad. |
| The Blues
started the better team, but there was a couple of hard
to forget challenges by Caskey on Kammal (he did nothing
the rest of the game) and Harrison on Coly, right in front
of the packed Linfield cages, for which he was booked
(well worth it). |
| The Blues
took the lead in the game and held it well into the second
half. Eventually the Glens grabbed an equaliser through
Gary Macartney from a hotly debated corner.
It looked tight from then on as both teams seemed evenly
matched. Alan Paterson had received the ball in his
goalmouth and carried it out to the edge of the box.
I can't remember it being too windy a night, normally
the prevailing wind at the Oval blows fron the City
end to the Sydenham end but this night the wind blew
from Sydenham.
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| Paddy, who
had a good kick, launched a big one from his boot, but
nobody suspected what was to come. George Dunlop, the
Linfield goalkeeper was standing about his penalty spot,
the ball bounced before him and the bounce, despite Dunlop's
despairing dive drifted over his head and into the Linfield
net. |
The moment of silence that followed will live with
me as fans realised what had happened and the silence
was replaced with the roar of delighted Glenmen. Paddy
himself says he didn't know what had happened until
John Devine jumped on him to celebrate.
Needless to say the rest of the game was a complete
celebration. I remember looking from the stand at the
celebrating Glenmen over under the shed. Boy were they
bouncing up and down, with the chant coming loud and
clear... "with a nick-nack paddy-whack Paddy's
scored a goal Geordie Dunlops on his hole". Oh
how we laughed.
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| To be fair
to Dunlop straight after the game he signed the match
ball wishing Paddy the best for his testamonial season
and gave it to him. So the Glens had won the game, won
the cup and Paddy had secured a little bit of history
as his goal was the first ever goal to win a cup final
in British football history. |
