Groundhopping24

 From meeting a man called Jurgen in Lurgan, to experiencing Conference League Fever in Ballymena, this whole trip has been something of a Dr Seuss book. In all fairness, it's likely to feel just as crazy by the time I'm at Belfast International Airport. What started in Cork and Cobh last Wednesday ends in Ballymena before a mad dash to the airport for a 6am flight back to Stansted on Friday morning. Suffice to say, I'll be sleeping my Friday away in an attempt to compensate for airlines and their ridiculous departure times (as well as Stansted's lack of any quick/direct Stevenage connection). And of course I'll be doing similar on the following Tuesday night before getting a 7am flight (seriously, get a grip airlines) from Gatwick to Ljubljana for another Conference League adventure involving Koper. But that's another story for another day. For now, our focus is on Larne, and the aim this summer given my flexibility is to see as many European ties in the qualif...

Solitude - home of Cliftonville  Some 145 years ago, football on the Emerald Isle became a reality on Cliftonville Street in Belfast. The first club on the island were formed in the shape of Cliftonville, whose storied history is well worth a deep dive into. That said, we may get into that a little more later on. For now, the 2025/26 season is well under way for me following trips to Drogheda United and Glenavon  and the next stop will be Belfast, where Cliftonville are based along with a host of other clubs. I'm sure the likes of Glentoran, Linfield and Crusaders will receive a visit from me somewhere along the way, but on this, the fifth day of my Irish adventure, I would be set to take in a third game in as many days. Spending all of yesterday pretending to be a journalist at Glenavon took a lot out of me, but thankfully I could take it a little easier after this match, with the next one set to be Larne's Europa Conference League qualifier against Auda in Ballymena. Much l...

The Cold War claimed many victims, none more so than Glenavon of Northern Ireland. Back in 1960, the Lurgan based side made the European Cup, with the preliminary round throwing up a tie against Wismut Karl Marx Stadt of East Germany. You can probably guess how it unfolded, in that it didn't unfold at all. The Lurgan Blues were unable to travel beyond the Iron Curtain, meaning Wismut Karl Marx Stadt (now known as Erzgebirge Aue) received a walkover into Round One without even kicking a ball. But why did the East German side go through? Well, it was a familiar tale of the side with more limited finances being punished. UEFA allowed both legs to be played in neutral venues, but Glenavon simply couldn't afford to travel, and so we were left with a game that never was.  End of story? Well, not quite. We may be 65 years beyond this miscarriage of justice, but believe it or not, this tie still isn't over. A year ago, Glenavon traveled to Aue to replay this first leg, where they w...