Institute FC: Fans share memories of Riverside Stadium

Try to tell any fanatical football supporter that their home stadium is just bricks and mortar.

Whether it is a 100,000-seater arena or a modest standing-only enclosure, it's special and full of memories for fans.

Institute FC was forced to leave the Riverside Stadium in 2017 due to severe flooding and a subsequent infestation of Japanese knotweed.

Lifelong fans of "the Stute" have been sharing their memories of the ground before it is scheduled for demolition.

The move to demolish the stadium in Drumahoe in County Londonderry was unanimously approved by Derry City and Strabane District Council's planning committee in June.

The Sky Blues, who play in the Championship of the Northern Ireland Football League, are now playing their home fixtures at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, best known as the home of Derry City.

Institute are hoping to eventually move into their very own purpose-built stadium in the Waterside area of the city.

But for many the ground off the Glenshane Road in Drumahoe - a few miles outside Derry - will forever hold a special place in the club's illustrious 117-year history.

The floods on 22 August 2017 were the result of almost two-thirds of the north-west's average monthly rain falling in a single night.

In November 2018 the club was told that it would be "very difficult to get flood insurance" for the stadium, which sits on the banks of the River Faughan.

After exhausting a series of options, the club hierarchy reluctantly approached the council to move for demolition.

Trevor Porter, a former player, manager and chairman at Institute, told BBC News NI that "it would bring a tear to your eye" to see what is left of the stadium.

"Institute has always been a community club and I cannot stress enough how much time and effort everyone involved in the club put into that stadium," he said.

"When we moved there in the 1980s it was basically just a field with a rope around it - that was it."

"Over the years we put new stands in, we put changing rooms in - all these great facilities and made it a real home.

"It was finally something that was ours and something to be proud of."

Trevor vividly remembers fans gathering along the bridge on the fateful day when the floods hit, watching their beloved stadium being ravaged by floodwater.

"We hosted Lurgan Celtic the Saturday before and I remember hearing people say how great the facilities were and praised how well the ground looked," he said.

"Then the following Wednesday it was all gone - everything we had worked so hard for was destroyed, it was heartbreaking.

"When I go up there now and look out at what's left - well, it's just a real shame."

Geoff Graham, who is originally from Yorkshire, moved to Northern Ireland 22 years ago and said he fell in love with a "brilliant little club".

He has since moved back to England but said the people he met in the stands of the Riverside Stadium became like a second family to him.

"I remember the buzz on match days - myself and a mate going to the pub beforehand and then getting a taxi down to the ground to meet up with everyone," he said.

"We would usually be in the stand closest to the river so on those hot days you would have to put up with the occasional wasp or two but we didn't care.

"Everybody knew everybody when you went there, it was the same faces who always went, and for those two hours on a Saturday it was like your home."

Geoff's favourite memory of the ground was when a 2,000-strong crowd watched Institute's Gary Woods score a late winner against Linfield in 2008.

"The match was brilliant - it was 1-0, there was such a great atmosphere and it's always nice to get a result over Linfield," he said.

Geoff's Saturday now typically involves watching Leeds United games at Elland Road but the 57-year-old checks the Institute score on his phone every weekend.

George Rutherford has been supporting Institute for as long as he can remember.

The 66-year-old is a regular at both home and away games, cheering on the Sky Blues.

He said: "I started supporting them back when I was about 17 or 18, I think, we are going back a fair few years now, and I've been going ever since.

"I've been there through all the high and lows and when you're a Stute fan you certainly have to get used to more lows than you do highs sometimes.

"I would go now to the Brandywell, which is a fantastic stadium, to watch them but hopefully we can get our own stadium again down the line.

"There are just too many good people involved with the club, both in the stands and behind the scenes, not to be a bit hopeful for the future."