Annual United Legends v Green Pastures match on Wednesday night

The playing fields at Galgorm will be the venue this Wednesday night for a now annual charity football clash.

Ballymena United Legends – a team comprising a familiar line-up of former players from the town side – will meet a select squad from Green Pastures, The People’s Church.

This is the fourth year that the much-anticipated match has been played. Last year’s confrontation ended in a hard-fought 4-3 victory for the church side, so the Legends are likely to be chasing revenge this year.

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The match will take place on July 2 at 7pm and this year, the event – which forms part of Green Pastures’ ‘Sonshine Week’ outreach programme – has been extended. As well as the football, there will be inflatables, kids’ football drills, a ladies’ match at half-time and a barbecue.

Former United players who have so far agreed to be involved in this year’s event include Geoff Blair, Mark Carlisle, Stephen Young, Gary Haveron, Michael Smyth, Dessie Loughery, Jim Scott, Ricky Averil, Dermot Docherty, John McKee, Darren Crawford, Davy McAlinden, Paul Hardy, Tom Sloan, Scott Drummond and Green Pasture’s own lead pastor, Jeff Wright.

The high-profile local encounter is now a highlight of the Sonshine Week programme and the GP side has come a long way since its first outing against the Legends in 2010, when 11 goals were scored against them.

Iain Black, community relations manager with Ballymena United, said recently that he was delighted to be given the opportunity to be involved in organising the event again this year:

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“This is a great annual event for so many reasons,” he added. “It raises money for a great cause, it lets the older supporters reminisce and the younger ones see some of the greats that they’ve heard about. Personally, I think it’s also fantastic for Ballymena United’s links in the community, which are vital for any team. Will McDowell and the GP team do a great job organising this and it gets bigger and better each year.”

Will McDowell, a ministry leader from GP’s Onside football outreach team, revealed that the idea for the annual match had originally come lead pastor, Jeff Wright, a former United first team regular.

“I never thought when we first organised this match back in 2010 that four years later, it would be continuing and getting stronger.

“The support from Ballymena United and the ex-players has been staggering and we’re really honoured to be able to bring the players back together like this and raise money for a worthwhile cause at the same time.”

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Proceeds from this year’s event will go towards Ballymena Foodbank.

The suggested ticket price is £5 – tickets on sale from Green Pastures reception at the church on the Fenaghy Road – or people can pay at the gate on the night.

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