Mourneview Park

Tuesday 11 August 2015

Glenavon 0-1 Cliftonville

Aerial shot of Mourneview Park (Bing Maps)

Programme - £2.00

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 6/10

Ease of getting there : 9/10

Atmosphere : 5/10

Programme : 5/10

View of Action : 7/10

Quality of the game : 7/10

The "football" feeling : 5/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 1/10

Legroom : 4/10

Surrounding area : 5/10

Overall : 54/100

Glenavon 0-1 Cliftonville

Whilst on a family holiday in Northern Ireland, I (Ross) took the opportunity to visit various grounds during my stay.
During the few days, I had already visited Portadown, Crusaders, Cliftonville, Linfield (Windsor Park) and Aviva Stadium whilst on a day trip in Dublin.
As I was staying in Lurgan, I decided to take in my third game of the season by visiting Glenavon take on Cliftonville for their first game of the season in the Danske Bank Premiership.
Having had a brief morning looking around the town, I made the short journey to Mourneview Park which is just a few minutes from the town centre.
Upon my arrival, I walked in through the car park gates paying my £10 admission to the steward on the gate.
Once I was inside, I started to get photos behind the stands before getting a coffee and a programme for the combined value of £3.00 (Premiership prices!).
With it being unreserved seating, I chose to sit in one of the best seats in the house, next to the directors area in the Main Stand.

Mourneview Park holds 4,160 supporters and was built in 1895. The 2008–09 Irish League Cup final was held at the stadium in the first League Cup final to be held outside Belfast. Between 1992 and 2005, Mourneview Park underwent a number of renovations, including the building of three new seated stands. In 2003, the Irish Football Association removed Mourneview Park as a potential semi-final host for the Irish Cup because of rioting between fans of Glentoran and Portadown. Mourneview Park has been regularly attacked by arsonists, including in 2005 when a petrol bomb was thrown into the supporters club bar which destroyed it, leading to Glenavon considering closing Mourneview Park because of the continuous damage. Mourneview Park has also been used for purposes outside of football. In 2014 it hosted a Christian evangelical event hosted by former Hull City and Northern Ireland national football team player turned minister, Stuart Elliott.

The match was comparable to English League 2 standard with the ground being more like an English Conference National ground. Cliftonville went into the game having not lost a first match of the season since 1998. Glenavon started the game with various shots wide in the opening stages of the match which didn’t threaten the Cliftonville defence. The visitors got into the game and started to open up the Glenavon defence. It was the visitors who opened the scoring when Glenavon lost possession on the half way line, the young, quick and promising Jay Donnelly darted forward into the 18 yard box, had a shot which was pushed away by the Glenavon goalkeeper Jonathan Tuffey into the path of David McDaid who fired home – 0-1.

Half time - 0-1
At half time, Glenavon made a substitution hoping to make a second half comeback.
Glenavon struggled to make up any promising attack with Gaelic Footballer turned striker Eoin Bradley finding himself offside numerous times. Glenavon Player/Manager Grant Hamilton came on replacing Bradley up front giving Glenavon a last chance of getting an equaliser.
Sadly, the gaffer turned player failed to make any impact with the visitors having the better chances towards the end. Cliftonville’s overall attack proved to be a lot more clinical than Glenavon which was the only difference between these two sides.
Full time - 0-1

After the match, a police helicopter and various police riot vans were parked outside waiting for any potential trouble due to the religious divide between these two sides. Glenavon is based in a British loyalist area with the large majority of people being protestant. Cliftonville are based in an Irish republican area of Belfast with the large majority of people being Catholic.

Both sets of supporters appeared to be well behaved as I walked back into the town centre after the game. When I reached the town centre, it started to rain so I therefore paid a visit to a nice pub to shelter and have a pint of Guinness!