The club was delighted to welcome to the Oval and onto the pitch on Saturday, seven members of the Glentoran squad that reached the quarter final of the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1973-74 season.
These legends were hosted by Philip Stevenson and the Glentoran Supporters’ Committee (1923) to mark the 50th anniversary of the two quarter final ties with Borussia Monchengladbach in March 1974. The players watched the game from the Directors Box and were hosted by the 1923 members at half time.
The players who took the salute from the support pre kick off were (left to right above), Trevor McCullough, Billy McKeag, Roy Walsh, Andy Dougan, Jim (Bimbo) Weatherup, Rab McCreery and Johnny Jamison.
All these lads played a massive part in the historic run with Johnny Jamison scoring four goals in the process. Rab of course suffered a severe leg break in the away last 16 game in Norway but came back to captain the Glens Invincibles to the league title in 1980-81. In fact five of the seven players were Glentoran captain at some stage in their career.
Of course the final game was overshadowed by the tragic passing of Glens’ number 4 Roy Stewart immediately after the final whistle. Sadly we have also lost two other members of the squad – John Anderson and Tommy Craig – in the past two years.
The seven took the salute on behalf of all 21 players who contributed to the run and the management team under the late George Eastham. All legends who played a unique and glorious part in the history of Glentoran.
