Official Opening of Mill Meadow

The Official Opening of Mill Meadow, the new home of Moyola Park Association Football Club, will take place on Saturday 31 July at 11.45am. John Alexander ‘Jackie’ Fullerton, MBE the well known sports broadcaster and former senior footballer will be Master of Ceremonies for the occasion. All former players, coaches, managers, committee members, supporters and members of the local community are invited to come along and join in the celebrations on this unique occasion, not only in the life of the club, but also of the Castledawson community. Amongst those to have received a special invitation to attend are the players and management of the successful Irish Junior Cup winning teams in seasons 1972/1973 and 1973/1974 and the players and management of the Irish League ‘B’ Division winning squad of 2001/2002.

The official opening will be part of a day long celebration of the activities of the club which will commence at 10.15am when the club’s young primary school age players, both boys and girls, participate in their weekly Football Skills Development Centre session. In the early afternoon the u13 and under15 players and also Moyola Park Ladies will demonstrate their skills in a series of 7-a-side games. The Moyola Park 1st XI will play a pre season friendly game against Northern Amateur League side Rosario at 3.00pm. During the halftime interval the under11 players will have their opportunity to perform. This game will be followed at 5.30pm by a game between Moyola Park Olympic, the club’s reserve team, and World United, a side representative of the many nationalities resident in Northern Ireland at this time.

Local artist Liam Horner painted a picture of some of the action from the last game to be played in the old ground between Moyola Park and Cliftonville in May 2009. In planning this picture Liam completed a ‘sketch’ which he has kindly made available to the club for auction on this occasion. Many people have fond memories of playing or spectating at games in The Park and for them this will provide an outstanding opportunity to acquire a colourful memento which will bring to mind memories of a bygone era.