You could take it as red when Thompson scored
With a treble double in the bag it's no surprise then that Linfield will paint the town red this evening.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
A third league and cup triumph in three seasons came in a kit of an Arsenal hue, but, unlike the Wenger boys, this is a team well used to open top buses.
At one stage the faces of the league champions looked to be a similar
colour, trailing 1-0 at the break and second best to Coleraine in every
department.
The loyal blue fans, dragged themselves away from listening to podcasts of
the Stephen Nolan show, to get appropriately attired for the occasion.
As always the South Stand and Alex Russell Stand were a sea of red, white
and blue, fans armed to the teeth with scarves and flags, although, by all
accounts, hatchets, hammers, hand grenades and spanners, were very hard to
come by this year.
The Coleraine fans, assembled in the north stand, will have been chuffed
that the organisers brought out hundreds of sky blue balloons, colours of
local rivals Ballymena, to show their support.
Then again, the last time Ballymena got a to a cup final, the only colours
available for balloons were black and white.
And talking of balloons, it's not often that a DJ is over-shadowed by
another DJ, but it happened when Simpson, hair by NIE, shoes by Harland and
Wolff, was rendered speechless by David Jeffrey.
Never a man to shy away from the limelight, the Blues manager made his
typical under-stated, low-key, entrance to the arena, stomping across the
lush Windsor Park turf like a determined buffalo.
The great and good of the local game were in attendance, the Kays catalogue
doing a roaring trade in new suits for the day, but there were no wolf
whistles as IFA president Raymond Kennedy was presented to the two teams.
There were a few boos, although I had no idea Jim Boyce was in the ground,
but not as many that were to greet Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers, life-long
Glentoran fan and there with Coleraine counterpart Maurice Bradley to add
some glitz and glamour to the occasion.
And in between times we had some football, most of it played by the
Bannsiders as the Blues struggled to shake off the hangover of their
Carnegie Premier League triumph.
That headache got a whole lot worse when Coleraine took a well-deserved lead
in the 19th minute, Paddy McLaughlin, a cup winner in his time with Derry
City, popping up to hammer home after Marty Hunter's header had been cleared
off the line by Aidan O'Kane.
It was all beyond the Bannsiders' wildest dreams, forcing the pace and
making the Blues look ragged at the back and it was no wonder that their
fans showed their displeasure in no uncertain terms at the break.
Indeed, such were the frustrations that Thompson was booked for a late lunge
on Jody Tolan in the 43rd minute but three deadly minutes after the break he
hit a double salvo that threatened to floor Marty Quinn's men once and for
all.
His first goal came in the 49th minute, a typically cool finish from the man
who celebrated his 24th birthday with goal number 43 of the season.
Number 44 took just three minutes more, this time released by striking
partner in crime, Glenn Ferguson, and finishing with the deadly precision of
an ace marksman.
Coleraine are no stranger to being almost down and out, but just as they
brushed off the threat of extinction three years ago, they dusted themselves
off and came back to trade more blows.
They may have got the better of the taxman then, but like Floyd Mayweather
though they couldn't get the better of the hitman.
