‘I WAS THERE...’: Fans look back on great days in Irish League history

Portadown v Linfield

(April 28, 1990)

Nat Richardson

Nat Richardson may not have seen much of the game but was one of the first at Shamrock Park to get to grips with the famous Gibson Cup prize.

Having spent much of his week reviving a club programme to mark the special occasion, Richardson worked the turnstiles on matchday and was in the boardroom sorting out the takings long after kick-off - so offered a helping hand to the Irish League official charged with the transportation of the trophy.

“My first game was in 1949 as an 11-year-old and remember walking around the Shamrock Park pitch as a boy with my friends holding up a board attached to a brush shaft showing the half-time draw numbers to the crowd, when 4,000 would be considered a bad attendance.

“So one of my first thoughts when we did finally seal that first league title was how many wonderful people and dedicated fans from the past never got to share in that moment.

“I had been working as part of the team with Portadown Times journalist Brian Courtney on our first programme in years leading up to the game so never really had time to get nervous and the crowds started to build outside the turnstiles from early on ahead of kick-off.

“To get the trophy from the boot of the Irish League official’s car into the club under cover I walked him out the changing room doors and he pulled up to the entrance.

“There was a football figure on the top of the lid and it came off in the boardroom so my brother, Benny, tore up a beer mat and we used that to help fix it back on!

“I watched from the second half on the stand steps and the feeling at the final whistle was unbelievable.

“When it came to the trophy parade I helped decorate with bunting then hammer on extra timber to the side of the lorry we got off Shillington’s yard.

“But people all just mucked in to get things done and, as a football town, we had waited so long and suffered so many disappointments leading up to the Linfield win.