Rewriting History

A BOOK which details the history of Coleraine Football Club is to be launched tomorrow evening…

The book titled ‘A New History of Coleraine Football Club’ will be launched in the Club 1927 Lounge on Thursday evening at 8pm.

The event will be hosted by Grant Cameron with former players Dessie Dickson, Johnny McCurdy and Victor Hunter in attendance for a question and answer session.

The co-authors of the new book are Hunter McClelland and Andrew Gillan, with the book being able to purchase on the night priced at £12 per copy.

There is expected to be a strong demand for the book, therefore it will sold on a first come first served basis.

Speaking to colerainefc.com, club historian Hunter McClelland shares his contributions to the club over the years, as well as stating that book will appeal to those of all ages.

“I started with keeping a scrapbook after conducting research into the history of the club using the files in the Coleraine Chronicle over a number of years,” he added.

“Andrew Gillan used my stats and season by season snippets for the Coleraine Football Club website.

“In turn, I used this to form the book, adding to the web material and adding numerous photos. I’ve also added a number of extra features.

“Over the years I had input to the Coleraine FC match programme, producing it for a good number of years. I still contribute stats and history for the current programme and the club website.

“I’ve also produced a number of small publications – the 1965 Cup final, the First Division Champions in 1996, the 1969 Blaxnit Cup and the 1958 Gold Cup. These were for anniversaries held by the Garvagh, Kilrea and District Coleraine Supporters’ Club.

“I also have extensive coverage of the fixtures against Dynamo Kiev and I was recently asked for it by them.

“I think there’s something for everyone both young and old. I know several fans of other clubs have shown an interest in purchasing the book.”

Hunter is well-known around The Showgrounds having served as a director for almost nine years, as well as being secretary for four years and chairman of the Garvagh, Kilrea and District Coleraine Supporters’ Club for 11 years.

However, did he encounter some fascinating stories when writing the book?

“There have been some fantastic and amusing stories that I have encountered and they are included in the book,” he continued.

“I’ve included my top 10 favourite matches, goals and best team selection.

“I’d love to write another book for the 100th anniversary in 2027 and would like to have the health and ability to add a supplement.”

Co-author Andrew Gillan, who now lives in Spain, shared his favourite memories of the club he has supported for around 20 years.

“I’ve been going for almost 20 years now,” he explained.

“The 2003 and 2018 Irish Cup finals will obviously stand out but there have been plenty of other memorable games. Winning 6-0 at The Oval, Stevie Lowry’s last minute winner against Linfield in 2012, the comeback from 3-0 down to win 4-3 at Shamrock Park the same year.

“It’s hardly a favourite memory, but I’ll never forget Black Tuesday and the summer of 2005. Those events taught me never to take the club for granted.”

Andrew, who is employed as a teacher, cites that being interested in historical features and his love for Coleraine FC was the perfect combination for his role in writing the book.

“I studied History at university which explains the interest in the past. I suppose the inspiration came from doing a series of club legend profiles for the programme and website from 2007 onwards,” he added.

“There wasn’t much in the way of information about that around at the time. Historical features were always a good addition to the match day reading – they were always my favourite part of a programme at an away ground anyway.

“You need to go back to 2011 actually when I started writing a more comprehensive history for the club website.

“It was my project for the close season that year. There was so much I didn’t really know about the history before my own time so that summer was a real education for me and I loved every minute of it.

“While doing that, I put together an outline which I planned to use someday as the basis of a full club history but as often happens, life got in the way. A few years later, Hunter approached me to say he was planning on writing this book and wanted to use my outline and research for it. I was happy to help out as more than anything, I just wanted the club’s story out there.

“Why should someone buy it? Quite simply, it’s the book I’ve always wanted to be able to read. The story of Coleraine FC is a brilliant one and it deserves to be told.”

Andrew was full of praise for the contributions of Hunter and states that he will be home for the festive fixtures and hopefully the League Cup final against Crusaders in February.

“It wouldn’t have happened at all without Hunter,” he confessed.

“His season by season records are second to none and helped greatly with constructing that original framework. He was always on hand for fact-checking and providing advice too.

“No matter what I’m doing on a Saturday afternoon, I’ll always have one eye on the club Twitter account for score updates. I’ve also proudly sported Coleraine colours at stadiums all over the country, including the Champions League Final in Madrid in June.

“I try to get to every game I can while I’m at home. I’ll be back for the games over Christmas and within minutes of the League Cup semi-final finishing, I was pricing up flights home for the final.

“Plenty of people I’ve met over the years have told me that they now look out for Coleraine’s results because of me as well. Not quite a supporters’ club, but oh well.”

So, can we expect Andrew to write a book later on down the line?

“It’s definitely an ambition of mine,” he concluded.

“I’ve come across a lot of clubs with interesting stories while living in Spain and I’m always taking note of ideas.

“It’s just a matter of finding time to write and someone willing to publish it.”