Seaview is in Northern Belfast so i got a Taxi from City hall in the centre of town. As luck would have it the driver of the cab was a "crus" fan,so i was able to get the lowdown on tonights match. Crusaders seem to be a club on the up after winning the Irish cup last season and starting strongly this term including a win at Linfield fc.(see above post,when written). After a rocky few years Coleraine look like they are much more on their feet than they were when Baz and myself watched them play Lincoln in a friendly a few years ago.(4-0 to the Imps that day)
I got to Seaview at about 6.30 so with time to kill i had a look around the ground and took a few pictures. There was a Rangers bar just down the road but i decided to go into the club house. It was quite smart but there wasnt much memorabilia from last seasons cup win. The very nice blonde haired girl served me with a great pint of Harp larger and at £2.30 it was the cheapest pint i had in Belfast. I then decided to get into the ground early to get some more pictures.
There was only one set of turnstiles open for both Home and Away fans which caught a few Coleraine fans out as they were waiting by the turnstlyes on the main road that werent open.(I count myself among them; they werent that easy to find). It was £9 to get in and another £1 if you wanted to sit in the large stand on the far side from the entrance, which i didnt. The programme was a couple of quid and badges were the standard £2.50. My taxi driver Steve had told me not to bother with the burgers as they have normally been there for weeks and are generally crap.
I liked the ground; it was quite old school and seemed a lot more like a football stadium than some of the plastic soulless places we have in the English league(Darlo, Northampton, Doncaster, Chester etc etc). It made a nice change to be back on a terrace. Both sides are open terraces with covered terracing at one side of the pitch and opposite from is the main stand that towers above the rest of the ground. I would imagine its a great view from the top of it.(2nd picture from the top)
some of coleraine's travelling army
It was a reasonable following that Coleraine had brought down with them; they tended to gather behind the far goal and half the stand on the side of the pitch (the other half being for the crus fans where i watched the first half. The atmosphere was non existent in the first half as the ref and his assistants did everything they could to spoil the game. Crusaders tried to get the ball down and play where as Coleraine seemed to favour the long ball game. The pitch wasnt the best and seemed to have more sand on it than blackpool beach.
I got talking to a couple of guys who were fans of Glentoran fc so like myself werent too bothered about the result. It's always good to get an insight into other leagues. Glentoran play tonight so hopefully they will get the result they want. It was interesting to get their views on how the game is run over there; it does seem that the Northern Irish FA dont help the clubs as much in ground development as the English FA do here (unless you are Linfield that is). Glentoran v Linfield is the big game in Ulster and a game I would love to do one day. I was going to see Linfield when I go over next but it looks like the Glens may have my vote now. Thanks for the company lads, sorry i didnt get your names.
We wandered over to the other side of the ground for the second half. Crusaders continued to push for a goal. Both keepers seemed to be a bit crap and were doing their best to make sure it didnt end goalless. Crusaders got the only goal of the game in the 73rd min and thats how it finished. This win took the home side up to second in the table. I got back to the hotel and watched the highlights of the crowd trouble between west ham and millwall.
All in all i thoroughly enjoyed the game and it has wet my appetite to watch more football in northern ireland in the new year sometime.
Admission £9
Programme £2 very nice looking but not alot to read,not worth £2 4/10
Club house 7/10 would be 5 but the blond barmaid was very nice
Ground 7/10 proper football ground, rough and ready
food,didnt have any
Match quality 7/10 should have been more goals,for both sides.
just a quick video for the glens
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