As a multiple winner of the Irish League title, Irish Cup, League Cup and numerous other competitions, you would be forgiven for thinking that Bangor striker Michael Halliday has done it all in local football.
But up until Saturday, the 39-year old striker had never scored back-to-back hat tricks – even in youth football. Having scored three for the Seasiders against Wakehurst in the O’Gorman Cup last weekend, Halliday made it six in two games in the demolition of Donegal Celtic.
Speaking after Saturday’s rout, Halliday said, “It’s definitely a first for me.”
“As a striker you want to score goals so to score a hat trick feels great from an individual perspective. Goals give you confidence, I was pleased to grab three last week, and to do the same this week is brilliant.
“It is great to contribute to the score line and help the team get a well-deserved three points.”
Bangor’s victory lifted them to second in the league table, fifteen points behind pace-setters Glebe Rangers – but the Seasiders have six games in hand on their rivals.
Winning is a habit that Halliday wants to embrace with his new side.
“Anyone watching today’s game will see what type of team we are and what we can do on our day,” said Halliday.
“We had an early scare, but outside of that we were really in complete control.
“We are delighted to record such a convincing win but it was disappointing to concede the one when we were so dominant.
“This week the difference was we took our chances. We create a lot of chances but the past few weeks we have not been taking them. Today, everything was ending up in the back of the net.
“The boys are creating chances every week and I’m just glad to be putting them away at the minute. We have some very talented players who can make the job of a striker much easier.”
Having made nearly 300 appearances for Glentoran and more than 70 for Crusaders in a successful career, Halliday is still adjusting to life at Bangor and his first season outside of Irish League football.
“I’m really enjoying it at Bangor,” he explained.
“I’m playing with a really good group of boys who are trying to play football the right way and we are more than capable of putting together big scores like we did today.
“The standard of some of the teams we have come up against has surprised me at times. We have maybe won games by the odd goal when we expected to be more comfortable.
“It is a decent standard and if we do not play to our potential on any given Saturday we know other teams will be waiting to take points off us.
“Sometimes the pitches are levellers but we need to make sure that we are always prepared to battle and fight, and with the right attitude our quality should come through.”
