“Glenavon Won’t Get Carried Away With Glens Victory” was the Monday morning headline in one Northern Irish newspaper. But still sat bottom of the league, having just doubled their points tally from a dismal 3 to a still paltry 6 with as many as 15 games already played, the obvious question is, why on earth would they?
Sitting seven points behind second-bottom Crusaders, this would be a perilous position for anyone, and an impressive 3-1 win does not change that. Glenavon have flirted with relegation a few times in recent years; however, things aren’t usually this bad. After all, this is a club who have only been relegated from the top flight once in their entire history and, when that happened back in 2004, they made an immediate return at the first attempt.
It shouldn’t be like this! Then again, no one is too good to go down whoever they are.
In 1951-52, Northern Ireland’s Glenavon FC became the first side outside Belfast to win the Irish League, and that includes the years before the south gained independence and its clubs left to form their own championship - a very significant achievement. Five years later, in 1957, they also became the first provincial side to complete the league and cup double. Their success did not last, however. In fact, their third and, sadly for them, last league title came just three years after that famous double. But despite sitting eighth in terms of league titles, just behind mid-Ulster rivals Portadown, Glenavon do have 10 second-placed finishes to their name. Also, that 1957 Irish Cup triumph was the first of three in five years and seven in total. The club also have one Irish League Cup triumph to their name and two County Antrim Shields. Don’t let their current plight fool you, Glenavon are a well-established top-flight side and one of Irish football’s notable names.
Glenavon are based in the County Armagh town of Lurgan, a rather charming settlement about a half-hour drive from the capital, Belfast, or 40 minutes on the train.
Northern Ireland’s largest lake, Lough Neagh, sits just under a couple of miles from the edge of Lurgan town. But the town itself boasts Northern Ireland’s largest urban park, complete with its own lake, albeit man-made, and this is impressive enough in its own right. It may be about 375 times smaller than the vast lough nearby, but considering it sits less than a ten-minute walk from the high street, it is certainly bigger than you’d expect. One might call it a hidden gem. Then again, it’s very easy to find if you know where to look.
Just outside the park is Brownlow House, a Grade A listed 19th-century building built in 1833. It was the ancestral home of the Brownlow family, of whom politician Charles Brownlow, 1st Baron Lurgan was head. The house hosts various events and is majestic to look at.
Aside from its splendid park and the historic residence that sits next to it, the town also boasts an excellent, rather bustling High Street. This retail haven comes complete with loudspeakers serenading shoppers with pop music as they walk down the street, something rather unusual for an outdoor shopping space. Kinda cool though.
This thoroughfare has an excellent mix of chain and independent stores, including an exceptional little second-hand bookshop that the proprietor calls Lurgan’s best kept secret. Rather apt considering it’s hidden away in a pretty small, almost deserted, shopping arcade and could easily be missed by passers-by. The place actually goes by the name High Street Shopping Arcade, and it looked like it was completely empty when I walked past. I almost thought it was closed down. If so, it would have been one of the very few places on the high street that was, however. I’ve already used it, but bustling is definitely the word - unless you can find a better one in your thesaurus.
One other thing very noticeable about the town is how neat and tidy it is. That could also be said about the several other places in Northern Ireland that I’ve visited, however. It is almost as if, after all the country’s violence and troubles of the past, the locals really come together to go the extra mile and take real pride in their towns.
In Lurgan, they also take pride in their football club too.
Glenavon may not be the most successful side in Irish football history, far from it, but they do still have a very rich history with numerous successes along the way and as I said earlier, just one lone season outside the top-flight.
The Lurgan Blues, as they are known, joined the Irish League in 1911, replacing Dublin side Bohemians, now 11-time champions in the Republic of Ireland. As also noted earlier, their most successful era came in the 1950s and early 60s. Glenavon’s double-winning side of 1956-57 was spearheaded by former Belfast Celtic forward Jimmy Jones. A rough challenge from Jones in a heated Belfast derby away at Linfield on Boxing Day 1948 angered the home support so much that it saw Jones beaten by a baying mob at full-time and lucky to be alive whilst suffering from a broken leg. That incident culminated in Belfast Celtic withdrawing from the league for good. But unlike Belfast’s then premier Catholic side, Jones, a Protestant, would return to football and score 269 goals in 222 games for Glenavon.
Winning the double gained Glenavon a place in the newly created European Cup, then in its third season. That foray into Europe ended at the first hurdle, however, when a 0-0 draw away at Denmark’s AGF Aarhus was followed by a 3-0 home defeat in front of over 30000 at Windsor Park, Belfast. Not as bad as three years later, though, when their European Cup campaign was over before it even began. The club were drawn against East German side Wismut Karl-Marx-Stadt, now FC Erzgebirge Aue, but the tie never took place.
Given it was the height of the Cold War, just a year before the Berlin Wall would be built, the British government refused Glenavon’s opponents visas to come to Northern Ireland. UEFA suggested playing the match at a neutral venue abroad, but Glenavon could not afford the extra travel costs that would have been involved, meaning the East Germans were given a bye into the next round. Despite all this, a friendship has developed between the two clubs in recent years. In 2022, a group of fans from Erzgebirge attended a game at Mourneview Park, whilst earlier this year, a match was arranged between the two with the Germans winning 2-0 in Lurgan.
With their three league titles all coming in that heyday period, it means the clubs' only trophy lifts since have come after cup final triumphs, with their most recent successes being Irish Cup final wins in 2013-14 and 2015-16.
Despite Lurgan having a bigger Catholic population, Glenavon supposedly have a predominantly Protestant support. This is similar to most top Northern Irish Clubs, with the obvious exception of Cliftonville. Unlike Linfield and, to a lesser extent, Glentoran, however, their supporters are not overtly Unionist in any big way - or at least it did not seem to look the case when I visited.
The club’s name is seemingly based on the geography of the area, and is a combination of the Gaelic word "glen" (meaning valley) and the river "Avon". This gives an English translation of "valley of the river”.
In terms of rivalries, Glenavon’s most hated adversaries are Portadown, who are based in the nearby town of the same name. The pair compete in the Mid-Ulster derby. Fellow Lurgan-based sides Lurgan Town and Lurgan Celtic both play outside the top two divisions, so have little in the way of any real rivalry with their more illustrious neighbours.
My visit to Glenavon’s Mourneview Park home was for that 3-1 win against East Belfast side Glentoran, which saw the hosts double their points tally after a shock win. I arrived just over an hour before kick-off and was met with a stadium somewhat devoid of the modernity you might find elsewhere, but far from ramshackle and definitely having a touch of character about it. This, without being truly old skool like, for example, their opponent’s Oval ground. One thing that was definitely fairly new, however, was the scoreboard, and it would be impossible not to see what the score was if, say, you arrived late.
Like many grounds in the league, the stadium is three-sided. In this case, the scoreboard end is empty. I was surprised to notice that the other end consisted of terracing; however, as the few photographs I had seen beforehand suggested the ground was all-seater. It turns out the stand in question had previously consisted of seating but was converted back into terracing before the 2023-24 season. The main stand along one side of the pitch is raised slightly above ground level, whilst away fans are housed on the opposite side.
As Chris Lee points out in his excellent book Shades of Green: A Journey into Irish Football, the name Mourneview Park suggests one might be able to see the mountains of Mourne in the distance. But like him, perhaps because of gloomy weather too, I was unable to see them. The mountains are supposed to have inspired C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.
I paid a £15 entrance fee, and after a look around the club shop, decided, out of interest, to check out the catering options, having been told food could be purchased from a hatch at the back of the terracing. Options were limited and looked rather basic, so I was glad I’d brought a sandwich with me. Having said that, I’ve since read reviews online claiming Glevaon offer the best burgers in the league. Visit and find out for yourself.
Two first-half goals from Davy McDaid, the second an injury-time penalty, laid the foundations for an impressive win. Paul McGovern grabbed a third for Glevaon on 70 minutes before Glentoran scored what would turn out to be nothing more than a consolation six minutes later. The win was a second in four games for new manager Michael O’Connor in what is the former Northern Ireland international's first managerial job. He has previously made over 70 appearances for the club as a player.
Given events on the pitch, it wasn’t surprising that the home support were rather vociferous throughout the game, and their singing and chanting came complete with a drummer who managed to produce quite a din.
The away fans took up probably over half of the 2000-seat stand they occupied. This may seem a lot for a club that normally attracts around 2500 spectators to their home games, but with Lurgan being only a 30-minute drive from the capital, I guess one should not be too surprised.
Despite numerous searches online and even contacting the club, I have been unable to ascertain the official attendance for the game. But I can’t imagine there were any more home fans than there were away ones. The clubs’ average league attendance last season was only 1029, although their highest gate was more than 3 times that, possibly when either Glentoran or Linfield, the other half of Belfast’s big two, came to town or perhaps for their derby match against Portadown. I suppose, however, the fact that they have had lower league attendances than many in recent years makes their raucous atmosphere all the more impressive.
By the time you read this, hopefully for their sake, Glenavon might have a few more wins under their belt. But regardless of whether or not they stay up this season, the club will always be an important institution within Irish football. Not only that, but I am certain the club and the beautiful town in which it is situated will host many more visitors like me for years to come - top-flight football or not. After all, those who do make the trip will find the experience just as delightful as I have described. Of that I am also sure.
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