Cups, upsets and Christmas at Seaview

The new century opened with the old habit intact. Banbridge Town, beaten 4–1 at Crossgar in the 1987 Intermediate Cup, were dumped out again in November 2002, 2–1 at their own rain-swept Crystal Park, with Rathfriland Rangers seen off 3–1 in the previous year’s competition for good measure. Then came a hard lesson: the club’s first intermediate-level final, the 2002–03 Border Cup, lost 2–0 to local rivals Killyleagh YC. It would not be the last near miss in that competition, and Kilmore has now contested four Border Cup finals without winning one. But what followed put the disappointment in its place.

2003–04 produced the great turnaround season. Fewer than ten league points at Christmas, then a winning spree through the spring that swept up the Clarence Cup, with derby rivals Downpatrick Hospitals beaten 5–1 after extra time in a dramatic final at Dromara on 20 May 2004. A Stevie Rogan hat-trick was at its heart, and the cup was handed over by Amateur League chairman Jim Shaw. It was retained in 2005, back-to-back wins under Donal “Duck” Bell, the former Downpatrick Steel & Sons winner who had taken charge in 2000 and built the most successful Kilmore side in a generation.

That side’s finest work came against full-time opposition. In the 2004–05 County Antrim Shield, Kilmore went to Ballymena United, days after Ballymena had beaten Linfield, and won 1–0 through an 88th-minute Alan Waterworth goal. In the quarter-final they held Lisburn Distillery 1–1 through extra time, John McCarthy equalising within two minutes of falling behind, and won the shoot-out 3–2, Paul Greener striking the decisive penalty in front of keeper Mickey Watson’s heroics. The semi-final brought Linfield to Seaview on 1 February 2005, and two Mark Picking goals ended the run 2–0. Not before a Kilmore side featuring a teenage Andy Waterworth, making his senior debut weeks before his move into the Irish League, had more than held its own for a half. The same season the club reached round six of the Irish Cup, where Ballymena took their revenge.

A nine-year Premier run ended with relegation in 2008 on 26 points, level with Nortel and undone by goal difference, and the rebuild in 1A set the stage for the club’s finest season.

And then came the morning everything since has been measured against. Christmas Day, 2009. Seaview. The Steel & Sons Cup final, one of the biggest prizes in intermediate football, contested since 1895, and that year the first final played on an artificial surface, against neighbours Downpatrick. Niall McCarthy put Kilmore ahead on 35 minutes. Deep in second-half injury time Liam Graham finished a solo run to make it 2–0. Player-manager Gary Kennedy, the same Gary Kennedy who had scored both goals in the 1996 Youth Cup final, was named man of the match, and captain Steven Rogan lifted the cup. The semi-final had needed penalties against H&W Welders; the final, on the biggest morning in the intermediate calendar, needed nothing but the two goals. That spring the club completed the double, winning Division 1A and returning to the Premier Section: the finest season in Kilmore Rec’s history.