THE GOAL WHICH NO ONE SAW 6m6s50

Stephen McBride’s 10th minute strike in Glenavon’s brilliant 3-1 victory against Linfield at Windsor Park on 2nd December 1989 is the goal which no one saw. 333447

His silky finish was greeted with stunned silence by patrons in the old South Stand. Elsewhere there was also hardly a sound.

Where were the Glenavon ers?

When Stevie set Terry Nicholson’s side on the path to victory, legions of Lurgan fans were stuck on the M1 near Broadway. Most did not reach the stadium until the midway point of the first half.

Bill Ireland, the much-loved football reporter and lifelong Glenavon er, was one of the many hundreds who missed McBride’s deft finish. Regrettably there was no celluloid record. Those were the days when BBC and UTV sent cameras to a maximum of two matches each Saturday. Bill explained what happened in his report for the Lurgan Mail:

Hundreds of Glenavon ers were sitting fuming in an M1 traffic snarl-up when Stevie made his first strike in the 10^th minute. The writer was also caught up in the motorway chaos but is delighted to accept the word of manager Nicholson that it was real cracker.

Here is the manager’s description: Blackie split the Linfield defence with a superb diagonal which set McBride free on the right. ‘Macker’ took his time, drawing goalkeeper George Dunlop and chipping the ball behind him with a delicate touch.

Malcolm Brodie, writing in the Ireland’s Saturday Night, and present in the stadium, proffered this description:

Blackledge, who this week signed a new 30-month contract, must be given the credit for the first goal. He deceived the defence when, instead of hitting the ball to the left, he switched play to the right, his crossfield landing in the pathway of McBride.

He carried the ball forward to the six-yard line. Out came Dunlop who committed himself and calmly – almost cheekily – McBride chipped the ball over the keeper’s head. It was a brilliant piece of cool finishing.

Ironically, Linfield had made the better start, threatening to score on several occasions. But then McBride intervened. Lee Doherty, who would Glenavon in the 1990s, had a chance to equalise but Robbie Beck saved with his legs. Philip Knell headed a cross past a post. Finally, in the 33^rd minute, the home side drew level. Sid Burrows crossed from the left, Beck pawed the air and Stephen Baxter headed home.

Glenavon completely dominated the second half but struggled to ister the coup de grace. In the 74^th minute Blackledge had the ball in the net, but an offside flag brought his celebrations to an abrupt halt.

In the 80^th minute McBride finally the made the breakthrough. Blackledge crossed, Geoff Ferris headed on and the future Northern Ireland international blasted the ball past Dunlop.

In the closing seconds right-back Michael McKeown added a third with a cross cum shot which deceived the Linfield goalkeeper and crept in at the far post,

Bill Ireland was ebullient as he drafted the peroration to his match report:

The Linfield hordes apart, few would begrudge Glenavon their two-goal cushion. They were full value for it and have demonstrated that Linfield are unusually vulnerable, giving rise to the hope that the title might go elsewhere for a welcome change.

It could perhaps even come to Lurgan for the first time since 1960. To make it happen this sort of form must be produced on a more regular basis with lesser teams put in their place in the same emphatic fashion.

Whatever happens it has proved beyond dispute that Glenavon is the best footballing side in the country. Linfield tried to take them on and came off second best.

Malcolm Brodie, a more impartial judge, agreed that the country cousins had mastered the city slickers:

Glenavon deserved this victory. There were no failures on the side, many successes and all triers, but the return of Ferris made an appreciable difference. He revealed a lot of skill, particularly in the second half when the Blues were completely outclassed.

Bill Ireland gave much of the credit for the win to Terry Nicholson for his tactical planning. He said that Terry had outsmarted Roy Coyle by exposing the weakness of Linfield’s stand-in sweeper, Abde Dehnoun. “The Algerian was all at sea,” wrote Bill. “He was unable to cope with the attacking forays of Ferris and Blackledge.”

The victory came at the end of a week when Wilfie Geddis, Glenavon’s larger-than-life chairman, had told Ulster Television viewers that he firmly believed his club had a squad capable of lifting the Gibson Cup. Fatefully, Wilfie and vice-chairman, George Fleming, both missed the match due to winter flu bugs.

Stephen McBride’s two goals were numbers thirteen and fourteen of the campaign. He would score ten more. The Lurgan man had, of course, started his career at Windsor Park, moved to Motherwell but returned home disillusioned. In September 1985 Glenavon signed him from Linfield for £500. It was the best business of the Terry Nicholson era. Stephen slowly recovered his confidence, started to find the net again and by the early 1990s had become, arguably, the best player in the Irish League.

Gary Blackledge, who helped to fashion both of Stephen’s strikes, had ed Glenavon from Glentoran in January 1988. The East Belfast men thought that the 29-year-old had had his best days. How wrong they were! He scored a remarkable 50 goals in his first 72 appearances. At one stage he matched Jimmy Jones’ strike rate. His first half century included a debut hat-trick at Mourneview Park against Cliftonville and another three-goal haul at the Oval. He finished the 1989-90 season with 32 goals.

Geoff Ferris had ed Glenavon from Limavady United in the summer of 1988. Although not blessed with pace, he was strong and almost impossible to dispossess. He was also the man for the big occasion. In April 1989 he netted a hat-trick in the Budweiser Cup Final Replay. He went on to plunder the crucial equaliser in the 1992 Irish Cup Final win and four months later scored with a long-range effort in extra-time during ten-man Glenavon’s memorable joust with 1992-93 UEFA Cup Finalist, Royal Antwerp.

Michael McKeown was in his third season after making the step up from Glenavon Reserves. He was a physically strong, no-frills, hard tackling right back who wore his heart on his sleeve. Some compared him to Nottingham Forest and England left back Stuart Pearce.

Other notables in Nicholson’s team were long-serving central defenders Paul Byrne and Duncan Lowry, the inimitable Tony Scappaticci, brilliant young midfielder Dessie McCann and the dynamic Stevie Conville.

The barnstorming win lifted Glenavon from sixth to third in the Irish League Championship table. Portadown and Cliftonville led with 19 points, the Lurgan men had 17 points and Linfield and Newry Town had 16 points. The top five had all played nine matches.

The Mourneview side returned to Windsor Park seventeen days later to defeat Newry Town 3-1 in the Roadferry League Cup Final. Geoff Ferris scored twice and Conville netted the other goal.

A month later Glenavon signed Northern Ireland’s 1982 World Cup Finals hero, Gerry Armstrong.

Terry Nicholson’s team finished the campaign with a magnificent fifteen match unbeaten run including, in the final stretch, nine wins and a draw – 28 points from a possible 30. However, it was not enough to prevent Portadown clinching the League Championship by a point. Glentoran and Linfield, the third and fourth placed clubs, were ten points further back.

LINFIELD: Dunlop, Dornan, Mooney, Doherty, Dehnoun, Coyle, Bailie, Knell, Baxter, McCallan, Burrows, SUBS: McGaughey for McCallan, Mitchell for Knell.

GLENAVON: Beck, M. McKeown, Scappaticci, McCann, Byrne, Lowry, McLoughlin, Ferris, Blackledge, McBride, Conville, SUBS: Kennedy (not used), C. McKeown (not used).

REFEREE: Mr. Leslie Irvine (Limavady).