|
The new century began with a new ground and a new internal set up at he club. The men running Glentoran not only moved home but also built a purpose built sports stadium with dressing rooms, offices and a running track on which they actually held the British Empire Games. The Oval was a state of the art sports stadium built with the comfort of spectators and competitors in mind a testimony to the forward thinking, determined attitude at the club.
The Irish league was won in 1905, 1912, and 1913 following the two successes in 1894 and 1897. In the 1913-14 season along with the League Championship the Vienna Cup was added to the rapidly growing list of trophy's adorning the Oval boardroom. This was the first European trophy ever won by an Irish league club with a victory over the local Vienna side 2-1 in the final.
The County Antrim Shield was won in 1900 with a 2-1 victory over Cliftonville and in 1909 the seconds became the first ever reserve side to win the Shield (even beating the Glens first team on the way!)
Glentoran didn't enjoy much early success in Irish cup until they won it then lost it again in 1909-10 ! This strange situation arose due to the omission of T Lewis from the official list of players only to register him later by telegram with the agreement of Bohemians, their opposition in the final.
Glentoran beat them 1-0 only for Bohemians to then complain about the registration and Glentoran were thrown out of the competition.
Glentoran's first official victory however was to be all the sweeter. In 1914 in a memorable final at Grosvenor Park Belfast, the Glens beat the old enemy Linfield 3-1. The historic team that day was as
follows:-
Murphy; McCann; Annessley; Ferrett; Scraggs; Emerson; Lyner; J Lindsay; Napier; Boyd; W Lindsay.
Glentoran's love affair with the Irish Cup had begun.
The
1913-1914 Bass Irish Cup Winners
During the First World War all international football was suspended but the domestic scene continues with the Glens winning the Irish Cup again in 1916-17 season defeating Belfast Celtic 2-0. In the 1918-19 final the Glens lost out to Linfield 2-1.
With the winning of the Irish Cup against Belfast Celtic and Linfield in that period the Glens were now a major force in the Irish soccer scene.
|
