Ellan Vannin

FC Isle of Man  0  Prestwich Heys  2

North West Counties League – Premier Division

Admission / Programme - £10 / £2

Since the mid 2000’s I’ve been a keen follower of the League of Ireland.

So much so, I got to a point a few years back where I’d managed to visit every ground in it’s two divisions. It was quite an achievement to get to that point, but to be honest, it’s one of those competitions whereby very little actually changes from one season to the next, so keeping on top of it isn’t really a challenge, it’s the getting there that takes the hard work!

Recently, this season for that matter, a new side has arrived in the shape of Kerry FC, and that remains on the ‘to do’ list, but prior to that, the only mop up jobs I’ve had to do since it was first completed were at Limerick when they moved to Markets Field, and Cabinteely when they appeared out of nowhere on the South side of Dublin.

That’s not to say though that each pre-season we hear rumours of clubs who are set to join, only for nothing to come of it. We’ve had suggestions that a team from Mayo was to join, another from Carlow was in the pipeline, while former LOI venues in Monaghan, Kilkenny and Kildare have all been mooted, but to no avail.

We’ve then had some crackpot rumours to go with it, Irish Sea FC and Molly Malone FC were a couple of belters, then of course FC Paddy’s Wigwam and Top of the Morning Athletic were mentioned in the briefest of dispatches (I made those two up, but the first two were genuine!).

However, one club was mentioned a few years back, Ellan Vannin FC, and that created a bit of a stir, especially on the basis that Ellan Vannin is the Manx language name of the Isle of Man, a place clearly not part of the Republic of Ireland.

It was suggested that an enquiry had been made from the Isle of Man about entering a club, and yes, of course that would create a question mark around jurisdiction, but as is commonly known we had a precedent set with Derry City. However, the bigger challenge may well have been that of logistics, long bus journeys are the norm in the LOI, boats and planes not so.

The story came, and the story went, but then it re-surfaced again in August 2019 when it was announced that FC Isle of Man intended to submit an application to join the English football pyramid. They were duly accepted into the North West Counties League for the 2020-21 season, but Covid and the restrictions around travel to and from the island meant they didn’t kick a ball in anger and were ultimately suspended by the league, but, with restrictions lifted, they were accepted for the 2021-22 season.

However, the deal was that all games on the island kicked off on a Saturday evening, to allow for visiting teams to travel, and on a more local level, so as not to clash with and have an adverse impact on games being played in the Isle of Man League on a Saturday afternoon.

Costs was of course a factor when it came to clubs travelling to the island, but it was again agreed that both visiting teams and match officials travel and hotel costs would be picked up by FC Isle of Man, who themselves are owned by the parent company known as Sporting Club Isle of Man.

Promotion was won in the first season at Step 6 following a runners up finish, the only logistical blip being when New Mills refused to travel at one point due to player unavailability (certain Covid restrictions around vaccination status remained), but otherwise all did seem to run smoothly, culminating in a Play Off Final victory over, yes, you’ve guessed it, New Mills! New Mills didn’t have an availability issue on that occasions it seemed!

Last season at Step 5 was more challenging, the club did avoid relegation following a late season rally, and the average attendance of around 1600 in the clubs inaugural season, halved to around 800, but with a change in manager, optimism is indeed high that this season they could make a push to challenge for Step 4 status.

So, we set off on the 40 minute walk from Onchan Raceway, meandered along the promenade in Douglas and then made our way via the backroads and a couple of alleyways down onto Peel Road, where the Douglas Bowl is situated. The ground is about a fifteen minute walk out of the centre of Douglas and is located in an area that’s made up of a sports centre, a power station (yes, I’m not joking!), a KFC and a petrol station. Industrial and commercial would be the words to use, but to be fair, once you approach the ground, and indeed set foot inside it, it has a very welcoming and attractive feel to it.

You enter in one corner and climb the steps, whereby in front of you is a ring of blue seats that extends in an uninterrupted fashion all the way around the elliptical bowl. The section of seating on the side where the dressing rooms are located is covered with a canopy like construction, otherwise it’s open to the elements. Four corner floodlight pylons adorn the ground, while the pitch is of the 4G variety, and probably sensibly so given the logistics of teams travelling to games. Food and drink could be had from a couple of locations, but it’s a dry ground, you cannot get any alcohol, unless of course you can blag your way into the visiting official’s area, but that was something we didn’t attempt! Our mate Pete travelled over last season with Rocester FC, and being part of the official party, he was ‘looked after’ shall we say!

The Douglas Bowl isn’t solely for the use of FC IOM, another club, St Mary’s, use it in the local IOM league, while it’s also used for finals and representative games. Older readers might also recall the Manx Cup, a tournament that used to take place in the late Eighties and early Nineties when teams from the North West (Blackburn, Bolton, Wrexham, Oldham to name but a few) came and competed along with an Isle of Man Select XI in a pre-season competition, well the Bowl was used for some of those games.

It was a lovely night, the visiting Prestwch Heys fans had clearly spent a very enjoyable afternoon in the hostelries of Douglas, and with a crowd of just shy of 800 in the ground we were treated to a game that the visitors won 2-0, and on balance deservedly so.

It was FC IOM’s first home game following a run of six fixtures on the road, and after just three minutes they were awarded a penalty for a foul but Dean Pinnington’s spot kick was tame and comfortably saved by Jordan Hadlow.

The visitors took the lead in the first half through Jack Coop, and then twice in the second period the Ravens (FC IOM’s nickname) were hamstrung by players being sent to the sin bin. This took it’s toll and in the dying minutes of the half Greg Daniels scored a second for Prestwich following a corner.

As the game moved into added time, FC IOM suddenly found a gear it looked like they didn’t have, and made progress by getting the ball into wide areas and providing crosses into the danger area, but this was to no avail as Prestwich dug in and defended well to keep them at bay.

Overall, you felt Prestwich were that bit more streetwise, and while FC IOM did have some key players out, on the evidence of that game alone, work needs to be done if they are to be thinking about a promotion challenge. I guess though, if they are reliant on players from the island, the talent pool will of course have it’s limitations. I don’t know if they recruit from the mainland or not, but I would suggest if they are to go for it, they may well need to, and that adds further costs of course.

At the final whistle it was a walk back into Douglas and a few pints in the football themed Rovers Return pub. The England v Argentina rugby game was being shown, and of course that attracted a certain type of viewer, but they were harmless enough and far too worried about the merits of running versus kicking to bother us in any way. After that it was back along the front to our hotel and a couple more drinks before retiring for the evening.

Just before we returned to the airport, we had a quick wander along the promenade in a Northerly direction to pay a visit to the Summerland Memorial. Summerland was a leisure complex in Douglas that burnt down in August 1973, killing 50 people, and if you walk past the memorial, the site where the complex was situated remains, with the rear wall still intact, deemed unsafe to remove due to the instability of the cliff that it’s conjoined to.

Summerland is the biggest tragedy to ever happen on the Isle of Man, and of course only recently we had the fiftieth anniversary of the event. I only became aware of it a couple of years ago when I listened to a broadcast on Radio 4, it was a pretty harrowing listen.

So, back to the airport, and as we waited for the bus, the Prestwich Heys party was assembling outside their hotel, some looking a little weary! The flights this time went without a hitch, and by mid-afternoon we were walking through Liverpool Airport.

Ellan Vannin, you didn’t disappoint!