By Hunter McClelland

Coleraine Football Club was founded in June 1927. The decision was taken at a well attended meeting in the local Orange Hall. The club was a merger of the local Olympic and Alexandra sides. It was agreed that the first colours would be white hence the original nickname of 'Lilywhites'. The last surviving member of the original team died recently - Mr. Billy Corscaddon : the team goalkeeper.

The income in the first season was £2,524 and six shillings. This would be approximately 1% of this season's projection. In June 1945, it was decided to form a limited company with the late Sammy Walker being named as first director. During the war years Sammy, with the help of a good friend Mickey McColgan, kept the Club alive by playing matches in the Intermediate League.

COLERAINE WITH THE GOLD CUP WON IN 1931

BACK: Mr S Stirling, Mr J McCandless, Mr T Cameron, A Dickson, J Williamson, C Magee, Mr J W Morrow, E Leckey, J Nesbitt, Mr S Troy, J Davidson.
FRONT: W Chambers, R Lyness, W Mears, D Pringle, W Devan, S Mitchell.

The fifties saw Coleraine win the City Cup and the Gold Cup for the second time. Tim Cuneen was the first big signing and the manager at that time was Arthur Milne. It was in 1952 that the famous Glasgow Celtic played at the Showgrounds and duly defeated the local side 2 - 0. In goals that day was Harry Gregg. In 1954 Coleraine played Glenavon in the Ulster Cup final but lost 3 - 1.

COLERAINE WITH THE CITY CUP WON IN 1953.

Back: D Pringle, Mr J Doherty, T McCavana, E O'Kane, W Ard, J McIlreavey, M Cannon, K Doherty, W Buchan, Mr J Bell, Mr W McNabb
Front: F Montgomery, H Waterstone, T Cuneen, H McCormick, J Graham.

Talking of the current financial problems brings to mind the problems of 1956 when the club had to slash costs drastically and choose to play the season with amateurs. Glasgow Celtic returned to play a fund raising game and their team included the late Jock Stein. Also paying for Celtic was a certain Bertie Peacock. It was in the 1950's that the John Crossan story made the headlines.

The John Crossan affair of the late fifties created one of the great debates of Irish soccer. The background to the story was the fact that John was banned from playing soccer after being found out for accepting a signing-on fee while still an amateur player.

What few people realise is that the punishment would have been greater had it not been for the intervention of the late Sammy Walker the then Chairman of Coleraine Football Club. Basically Sammy advised the rulers of football that he could expose many other problems with the local game. Following a compromise the player was banned from playing in the 4 Home Countries only allowing him to play on the Continent.

He subsequently signed for Sparta Rotterdam and did exceptionally well with them. He later left them to play for Standard Leige for a year. Sunderland then obtained his signature after the Irish league lifted its ban. John went on to win 24 caps for Northern Ireland.

The sixties era was momentous in the history of the club. Chairman Jack Doherty persuaded Bertie Peacock to return to his hometown club in 1961, when his career ended at Celtic. By 1965 Coleraine had won the Irish Cup for the first time, defeating Glenavon 2-1 at Windsor Park, before 18,000 football fans. The team is well remembered by Coleraine fans from that memorable day: Victor Hunter, John McCurdy, Alan Campbell, Ivan Murray, Allan Hunter, Bertie Peacock, Tommy Kinsella, Tony Curley, Ken Halliday, Shaun Dunlop, Derek Irwin. This gave Coleraine their first experience of European football, against the formidable Russian side Dynamo Kiev.

COLERAINE FC WITH THE IRISH CUP WON IN 1965

Back: D Pringle, Mr J Doherty, A Campbell, B Peacock, J McCurdy, V Hunter, A Hunter, S Dunlop, J Burns.
Front: T Kinsella, I Murray, T Curley, K Halliday, D Irwin, Mr W McNabb

Other trophies arrived at the Showgrounds: the Ulster Cup, City Cup, Gold Cup and Top Four Trophy. In 1969 Coleraine brought the Blaxnit (All-Ireland) trophy home, after defeating Shamrock Rovers 4-3 on aggregate. The following year they won it again, and Coleraine beat Portadown 2-1 in 1972 to lift the Irish Cup for a second time.

It was not until 1974 that the elusive Irish League Championship trophy, the Gibson Cup, arrived in the Boardroom.

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS - COLERAINE FC WITH THE GIBSON CUP IN 1974

Back: D Jackson, D Gordon, V Magee, L Clarke, E McNutt, P Tweed.
Middle: D Pringle, T Cochrane, R Peacock, J McCurdy, B Jennings, E Crossan, M Guy, I Murray, J O'Neill
Front: Mr J Morrison, Mr J Doherty, A Campbell, B Peacock, Mr J Doherty, Mr F McFaul
Missing: S Mullan, D Dickson

Other key players in the Peacock area were Tony O'Doherty, Brian Jennings, Davy Jackson, Terry Cochrane, Davy Gordon, Ray Gaston and a certain Des Dickson.

Ivan Murray and Johnnie McCurdy took over on the resignation of Bertie Peacock in 1974, Murray continuing as manager until 1978. The Irish Cup was won twice during this period - 1975 and 1977, when Coleraine defeated Linfield both times. In 1975 it took three matches at Ballymena Showgrounds to decide the outcome, ''Chang'' Smyth scoring the all-important goal in the second replay after 1-1 and 0-0 draws. The most emphatic decider was at the Oval in 1977 when the scoreline was 4-1 in favour of Coleraine. Victor Hunter succeeded Ivan Murray for a three-year spell in charge of Coleraine, followed by Des Dickson, Tony Curley and Jim Platt. In the Eighties, Coleraine were league runners-up in each of Jim Platt's first three seasons, with key players Felix Healy and Kevin Mahon, whom Victor Hunter had signed in 1980, Ricky Wade, Ray McCoy, Marty Tabb, Roy and Barry McCreadie, Ronnie McDowell. Michael O'Neill and Raymond Henry. There were more memorable European encounters during this period.

Coleraine struggled for the early part of the nineties and had numerous managers: Iam McFaul, Colin O'Neill, Billy Sinclair, Felix Healy and Kenny Shiels. They dropped to the new First Division after a crazy situation whereby Bangor had to lose their last game against Ards to be promoted - and they somehow managed to do just that. After a shaky start, Coleraine won the First Division in style and the following year won the Ulster Cup and were runners-up in the Premier League.

Marty Quinn was appointed manager in October 1999 and took the team to the semi-final stage of the Irish Cup, the final of the Coca Cola Cup and the team finished runners-up again, in the Premier League. For the past couple of years, Marty has brought the team in at 4th place in the league, along the way picking up the North-West Cup. After a bad start to the 2002/03 season, assistant manager Rory O'Boyle resigned and Alfie Wylie stepped in. Coleraine performed a revival and went on an unbeaten run that stretched over 20 games and eventually finished 3rd in the league. Coleraine also continued this success into the Irish Cup when they reached the final after beating Omagh Town 5-2 in the semi-finals.

In the final, Coleraine again continued their great form when a goal by Jody Tolan put the Bannsiders 1-0 up early in the first-half against Glentoran. Despite being regarded as the underdogs, Coleraine held on to their lead and were victorious. The first major trophy for 26 years. The long trophy drought was over and several thousand Coleraine fans celebrated into the night.

CELEBRATIONS ON THE PITCH AFTER THE 2003 IRISH CUP WIN

LEFT TO RIGHT: Stuart Clanachan and Paul Gaston hold the Irish Cup aloft infront of the jubilant Coleraine support

The Club’s well-publicised financial problems had already overshadowed much of the 2003/04 season and at its end the club was forced to operate on a reduced budget, with several top players leaving. Despite this a top six finish was still achieved. The summer of 2005 saw more budget cuts and several big names leaving The Showgrounds, but this time, the main concern for fans was the very future of the club. In August, the Inland Revenue filed for a winding up order against Coleraine due to debts of £1.3 million.

On 9th August, Coleraine played local neighbours Portstewart in a friendly at The Showgrounds, in what many believed would be the club’s last ever match. But happily for all involved with Coleraine, representatives of the supporters group, the Friends of Coleraine, worked tirelessly to persuade the High Court to postpone the hearing to allow them to put together a business plan to show that the club could be viably run. Eventually the court ruled in the club’s favour and they were allowed to enter Administration and a Steering Committee was set up to run the club. After these traumatic events, the players managed to deliver a trophy to their loyal fans, defeating Institute to win the North West Senior Cup for the 17th time.

In 2006, the Friends of Coleraine formally took control of the club and Coleraine were able once again to take their rightful place in the Irish Premier League for that season, eventually finishing the campaign in 7th place.

THE CURRENT SQUAD

LEFT TO RIGHT: Kyle McVey, NoelAnderson, Darren Boyce, Davy O'Hare, Darren Cassidy, Paul Gaston, Stuart Clanachan, Damien Whitehead, Tommy McCallion, Jody Tolan, Stephen Carson