Carrick Rangers 0 Cliftonville 1

Friday 26th January 2024 – Sports Direct Premiership – Taylors Avenue, Carrickfergus

Friday night football is an established “thing” in Northern Ireland.  A few of the Premiership teams, notably the champions Larne and Newry City favour a Friday night under the lights as their preferred game day, whilst every week BBC Northern Ireland show a game live.  For anyone wanting to grab a couple of games, and still be home for last orders on a Saturday, there is no better league to sample.

And here’s a level of sensibility that leagues around the world could copy.  Every adult ticket, for every game, at every club is £13.  No categorisation of games, no variable pricing strategies.  £13.  Tonight, my ticket for the game against Cliftonville was £13.  Tomorrow’s Ballymena United v Loughgall is £13.  Now, if that isn’t an incentive to come and watch a game, then what is?  Alas, competition from England still looms large – with the Tottenham Hotspur versus Manchester City FA Cup tie on domestic TV, many will decide to stay at home rather than venture out for either of the two games kicking off on Friday night.

Having had a week of family time in Centerparcs, I took leave and headed across the Irish Sea and ended up in Carrickfergus, sitting on the north shore of Belfast Lough, with the lights of the city twinkling away in the distance.  It is County Antrim’s oldest town and one of the oldest towns in Ireland as a whole.  Carrickfergus Castle, built in the late 12th century at the behest of Anglo-Norman knight John de Courcy, was the capital of the Earldom of Ulster. After the earldom’s collapse, it remained the only English outpost in Ulster for the next four centuries.  Probably why you can still buy Marmite and HP Sauce in the shops here.

The town’s team, Carrick Rangers, started life as a merger between two local sides called Barn Mills and Bubbles.  I can’t imagine playing for the latter was an easy task.  They moved into Taylors Avenue in the 1950s and has been their home ever since. It has gone through significant modernisation in the last decade or so, as part of the Irish Football Association’s ground accreditation programme.  In 2011, when they were first promoted to the new IFA Premiership, they had to groundshare with Crusaders, and again in 2016. 

The club’s one honour was the 1975-76 Irish Cup where they pulled off a major shock in beating Linfield.  The victory meant they qualified for the then European Cup Winners Cup the following season, beating Aris from Luxembourg 4-3 on aggregate before a 9-3 defeat over two legs against Southampton.

Last year the cup took a potential major step to becoming more of a force in Irish football when Estee Lauder’s Chief Information Officer, Michael Smith, bought the company.  Quite why a US C-Level executive would want to invest in a mid-table Northern Irish club is a mystery but with local rivals Larne’s impressive progress from 2^nd division side to Champions in just a couple of seasons a fine example of what outside investment can do, both on and off the pitch.

The focal point of the ground is the Main Stand, sitting astride of the halfway line, whilst the newest addition to the ground has been the part seated West Stand, where, if the following is sizeable, the away fans are located.

For the visit of Cliftonville, the whole end was allocated to them and there was the unusual sight of there being more away fans in the ground than home ones.  Most of the home support stood alongside the pitch, with a low wall separating them from the action.  The Irish trend of having a group of very young, noisy fans was very present at Taylors Avenue, never letting up in their support of the Amber Army.

The VIP guests, possibly even Michael Smith himself, were located on the far side of the ground, the home of various multi-level portacabins and temporary structures.  They would certainly have a good view of proceedings but in a very sterile environment.  Whilst the club’s ground is more than adequate for their current needs, that side of the ground sticks out as really needing investment, or at least some proper changing rooms, media facilities and a decent spot for their guests.

It wasn’t the best of games, with the strong wind causing issues for both the players and the fans, who couldn’t warm to the game.  In the first 45 minutes the highlight was probably the cup of tea I had, with neither keeper really being tested.  It did get better in the second half.  Cliftonville’s Shea Kearney hit the post from close range, whilst at the other end Danny Gibson’s shot was spilled by the Cliftonville keeper.

With 30 seconds left of the four additional minutes at the end of the game to be played, Cliftonville had a free kick on the right-hand side.  The ball was delivered inch-perfectly by Sean Stewart to the far post where Odhran Casey jumped the highest and headed home.  Cue the wild celebrations as fans spilled onto the pitch at one end, whilst the Carrick Rangers fans headed for the exit.  It was a real kick in the teeth but a goal that perhaps sums up the two sides respective seasons – Cliftonville not knowing when to give up, Carrick Rangers letting their concentration slip for a few seconds.

The win kept the pressure on Linfield and Larne at the top of the table, their sixth victory in a row, and extending their unbeaten run to 12, their last defeat coming in the game I saw at Larne.  Carrick Rangers remain in 6^th place, still in the play-off spots for the Conference League spot.  But there’s still a long way to go and if Carrick Rangers want to have that shot at Europe once more, they will have to keep focused right up until the final whistle.

I followed a small crowd back towards the town centre along the edge of the Lough, the impressive Carrickfergus Castle lit by the full moon.  I resisted the calls from the aging sirens outside Dobbins Inn, and the lure of cheap beer in Wetherspoons, heading back to my hotel on the quayside where the whistle sails and clanging bells of the boats welcomed me home.