The Premier years

When the Amateur League created its Premier Section in 1991–92, it set ground criteria that were beyond many clubs. Kilmore met every requirement, the reward for years of work on the monastery ground, and became founder members.

The upgraded ground paid off immediately in the grandest way available to an amateur club: a home tie against senior opposition in the Irish Cup. On 18 January 1992 Cliftonville became the first Irish League club to visit Crossgar. They left with a 1–0 win, but the abiding memory belongs to Paul Moore, whose header crashed off the crossbar with the game goalless. Six inches that Crossgar has been discussing ever since. Cliftonville came back in the 1995–96 competition and won 3–0. Two visits from senior opposition in four seasons said plenty about where the club now stood.

The decade’s crowning achievement belonged to the young ones. The under-18s entered the Northern Ireland Youth Cup in 1994–95 under Billy Sloan, and on 22 April 1996, at Dixon Park, Ballyclare, they beat Portadown Boys 2–0 to win it. Both goals came from a 17-year-old Gary Kennedy, fresh from trials at Stoke City, in front of watching Northern Ireland manager Bryan Hamilton. “Kilmore’s Kennedy steals the show”, said the Belfast Telegraph; “the trophy was on its way to Crossgar.” No Amateur League club has won it since. Kilmore was the last. Several of that team went on to play Irish League and senior amateur football, none more so than Kennedy himself, whose story this history keeps returning to.

The era carried its sorrow too. In May 1998, Robert Adams, “Mr Kilmore”, died suddenly at just 47. His work and dedication had carried the club for three decades, and the response was permanent. Later that year the ground he built up was officially re-opened as Robert Adams Park, his family at the centre of the ceremony alongside co-founder Davy Harper, with Brother Paul McKeon of Tobar Mhuire and Rev. Sam Armstrong of Lissara Presbyterian both at the top table. The monastery and the manse together, which says everything about what the club is in Crossgar.

The improvement works that followed were begun in his honour: the perimeter wall, gates and grandstand completed in 2000, and the changing rooms first used in 2002 and opened officially on 9 July 2003, Glentoran manager Roy Coyle cutting the tape before a friendly against the Glens. On the pitch the club dipped and recovered, relegated in 1996–97 and promoted back in 1998–99, closing the decade where it believed it belonged: in the Premier Section.