Today, having recently told you that I don't do pre-season Friendlies, I'm going back 29 years to 1993 and another pre-season game, this one being between Castlerea Celtic and Athlone Town, played as a memorial to local lad Ciaran Webb who had died earlier in the year. Attendance at the game formed part of my holiday in Ireland that summer.
Castlerea Celtic are an amateur football club based in County Roscommon, Connacht and are members of the Roscommon & District Football League. Celtic can trace their origins back to 1886, making them one of the oldest football clubs in Ireland. Indeed Athlone Town is the younger club of the two having been formed one year later in 1887! Celtic play their home games at Celtic Park on land forming part of "The Demesne", an area of greenery in Castlerea that is part of the Suck Valley and boasts, amongst other things, an elephant's grave and a fairy garden! One hopes that the elephant's demise wasn't caused by stomping on the fairy garden! Celtic Park is another football ground that is rather off the beaten track for groundhoppers and, according to the Futbology app, I am one of only two subscribers to have visited the ground. I did enjoy the hand-painted advertising hoardings shown in the photograph on the programme cover. There's just shoe shops in Castlerea it seems!
Athlone Town are a senior ranked club in Ireland and so it must have been something of a coup for Castlerea Town to obtain the agreement from Athlone to send a side to play in the featured memorial match. Currently Athlone play in the League of Ireland First Division which is at the second tier of football in Ireland behind the League of Ireland Premier Division. Athlone are, perhaps, not what they once were. In the early 1980's Athlone Town were twice Champions of the Republic of Ireland and this led to a couple of European Cup campaigns including one in which they defeated Valerengen of Norway in the 1st Round before being eliminated 3-0 on aggregate by AC Milan in the next round after a goalless draw in the home leg. Heady days indeed!
Despite the disparity in the status of the two clubs, the featured game finished honours even at three goals apiece.
CRB Match No. F16
Comments
Post a Comment