From ‘video nasty’ to video sensations – Queen’s stalwart McManus relishing Glentoran cup tie

As the longest serving player in the Queen’s squad, McManus has witnessed at first-hand the progres the club has made in recent years, which has been accelerated significantly since Thompson took over in 2013.

Having joined the Irish League’s third tier (now called the Premier Intermediate League) in 2003, they flirted with relegation for a number of years before winning promotion to the Championship last season.

In 2018 they won the club’s first trophy by beating Dundela in the Intermediate Cup final at Windsor Park, and they returned to the National Stadium last season for the final before losing to Crumlin Star.

“The change in the club since I joined is like night and day. It started off gradually but has really reached new heights in the last few years.

“Back when we played Glentoran in 2010 it had more of a ‘big day out’ feel about it, but now we have beaten Linfield and know we are capable of taking on Premiership clubs.”

It will not have caught the headlines like their big cup shocks have done, but McManus also recalls an end-of-season Championship 2 match in 2016 which, if they had lost, he believes could have threatened the club’s future.

“It was a season when there were 15 teams in the league and five were being relegated,” he explained. “Going into the last day, two had already been relegated but as many as five teams could still go down – and we were one of them.

“We went to Coagh United and won 4-1, thankfully. I’m not even sure the younger lads appreciated the significance but the older players and the management team certainly did. The nerves were wild. I really don’t know what would have happened to the club if we’d dropped out of the Irish League.”