Pennies Drop!

After 28 years the penny has finally dropped and the organisers of the Milk cup have realised that Coleraine Showgrounds is a dump. I could've informed them of this fact 28 years ago, but had concluded that they wanted to centre the games in the North West principally. If I had thought for one moment that they had been temporarily blinded (28 years is a a long temporary period I admit), by the 'shite' talked by the Coleraine scum, I would soon have enlightened them as to their big mistake. Ballymena Showgrounds is so superior to Coleraine, which has been undeveloped in the last 20 years, as to make Coleraine akin to a junior team's ground.

In fact I'd lay odds that Junior team's wouldn't be seen dead in those types of surroundings, as the ground should in fact be condemned. Monies and bottomless pits go 'hand in hand' with Coleraine, one can only guess at the money that has been invested there over the years and still no development of the ground has taken place. They did siphon a lot of this money off into players salaries, but where the rest went is anybody's guess, I'm pretty certain that the inland revenue never got any of it. The Milk cup organisers have stated that they hope this will be a temporary measure until Coleraine get their act together. Hopefully from a Ballymena point of view it will last for at least another 28 years!

Another 'Penny' finally dropped this week, when after endless promises, the Ballymena borough council finally gave the 'Stock cars' their marching orders. The council had intimated that they intended to oust the Stockies, as they were continually damaging the Showgrounds pitch, which then the council had to finance the repairs of. In the end they lacked the 'balls' to do this and have invoked the matter of 'health and safety' as their grounds for refusing a licence for the oval racers. I personally believe they are doing this 'tongue in cheek', knowing full well that they cannot be sued by the Stockies, but if the Stockies appeal against this rule and win their case, they will look to be guiltless and will tell the football club that their hands are tied.

There's an old saying (attributed to Winston Churchill, among others), that goes, 'you can fool some of the people, all of the time, all of the people, some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people, all of the time! Ballymena Borough are attempting to do the 2nd of these statements (fool all of the people some of the time) and they will probably get away with it while us football folk, will have to suffer as a result of it. Our pitch will remain too narrow for European football, Stock cars will regularly 'cut up' the pitch and we'll never be able to have exclusive use of the Showgrounds on Boxing or New Years Day. If this is progress, I want no part of it!