I hadn’t been to an Irish League game since primary school.
My Dad took me to Linfield v Coleraine at Windsor Park in 1987 (time may have distorted the reality here). I was definitely in primary school; all my friends were Linfield fans and telling them I was going on Saturday gave me a certain level of playground coolness (at least for that week).
I don’t remember anything about the game. I can’t tell you what the score was. Who scored? Was it a draw? I have no idea. When I got home and Mum asked if I had a good time I told her I loved it.
My Dad said we wouldn’t be going back.
Let’s not forget this was during ‘The Troubles’ and 1980s football grounds in Northern Ireland weren’t necessarily the family-friendly places they have moved more towards today. There was more than a fair amount of sectarian chanting and for my Dad, this was not a world he felt I was ready for or wanted me to be part of. Of course, this was only revealed to me years later in my innocence and naivety I had no idea what was being sung or said around me.
So we didn’t go back.
We made trips to England, and Scotland together. From the mid/late 90s, we were regular attendees at Northern Ireland internationals together (still a very imperfect place - more on that perhaps another time) but local football was never on the table.
To be honest it never really crossed my mind until the invitation came.
‘You should come to a game with me’. An invite from a close friend who had been embracing local football himself in recent times.
In truth post-pandemic, I’d visited a couple of local grounds. I was seeking connection again. Football during the pandemic had been rather soulless, the empty stadium era and the strangeness of the times (as well as some other factors for future posts) made me realise that Premier League football was perhaps further away from my enjoyment of the game than it had ever been.
I guess this all started because I was searching for authenticity.
So accepting the invite I headed off to meet my friend at Wilgar Park home of Dundela FC. A tight, compact ground with a devoted following the Duns instantly got under my skin. The authenticity I had been seeking was here in abundance. Community, connection, decent football and most importantly heart and soul.
At first, my attendance was sporadic, but this slowly grew. Not only was this a football connection but it also provided a regular and much-needed connection with a friend and was proving to be a real boost for my mental health.
I enjoyed it all and took some photos to log my journeys for my own personal Instagram. I‘ve always done this. A form of digital scrapbooking I suppose.
I soon realised thought through various shifts in the digital algorithms this caused, that many football-related accounts were out there doing the same thing. So inevitably I took the plunge and 3pmSomewhere was born on Instagram. Tapping into fans’ love of grounds and football culture I’ve developed a strong, small, loyal following and my journeys up and down the road with Dundela have allowed fans from around the world to learn and invest in this team that I now love!
So where are we now?
Well, I’m a devoted regular at Dundela both home and away. People who were strangers on the terrace have become friends, others give you the nod of acknowledgement that comes with shared Saturday afternoon devotion.
This club has become part of me and I have become part of it. The symbiotic relationship between club and fan is now entrenched in my personality and identity. I’m looking for news during the week, keeping an eye on football more locally and listening to Irish League podcasts.
The journeys have started to expand to other grounds around Northern Ireland for non-Dundela games and we’ve enjoyed trips to women’s games both domestically and for international fixtures. All this is of course logged over on the Instagram account.
Games have become not only an opportunity to watch and enjoy football but also an opportunity for my friend and I to reconnect, catch up and chat about all sorts of things while we travel. One of the many unforeseen benefits.
Going to local football I never expected this to all happen.
I never thought that it would bring the idea of dedicated social media accounts and a form of digital community.
I didn’t anticipate how a club could become part of my life and how quickly I would feel part of a community on the terrace.
I didn’t anticipate the upswing it would bring to my mental health or perhaps appreciate how low it was before all this began.
I never meant to fall in love but I’m very glad I have.
Oh, one more thing………
Up the Duns!
