Annagh United Football Club (The name 'Annagh' ) is a semi-professional,

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

football club playing in the

NIFL Championship The Northern Ireland Football League Championship (known as the Lough 41 Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the second level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national football league in Northern Ireland. Clubs in the Championshi ...

. The club, founded in 1963, hails from

Portadown Portadown () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population of a ...

and plays its home matches at the BMG Arena. The club home colours are all red and away all white.

History

Tandragee Road has been the club's home since 1983. Indeed when the club opened its new pitch a Northern Irish star player of the time, the great

George Best George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A highly skilful dribbler, Best is regarded as one of the greatest p ...

turned out in an Annagh United select side. In the 2009–10 season however, the team finished near the bottom of the league and manager Wilkinson parted company with the club. In late July David Johnstone ex Loughgall caretaker manager was appointed manager. Johnstone played for Ards, Carrick Rangers, Larne and Loughgall. Recent seasons have brought some notable cup runs, none less than 2006–07 under the reign of Niall Currie, now boss at fellow Championship club Dundela, when they reached the Mid-Ulster Cup final against local senior club Newry City and the

Irish Intermediate Cup The Irish Intermediate Cup is a Northern Irish football competition for teams of intermediate status, including NIFL Premiership reserve sides. It is a straight knock-out tournament and is currently sponsored by McCombs Coach Travel. The curre ...

Semi-final against Coagh United. Annagh lost out to the latter in the

Bob Radcliffe Cup The Bob Radcliffe Memorial Cup is an intermediate football competition in Northern Ireland run by the Mid-Ulster Football Association. It was introduced in 1978. The competition culminates in the final which has traditionally been played on Boxi ...

semi-final earlier in that season. Johnstone has since departed the club and the temporary management team of players Dean Smith, Darragh Peden and Alan Murphy took over. Dean Smith was confirmed as manager for the 2013–14 season with Alan Murphy assistant and Darragh Peden coach. The club were promoted to the NIFL Championship 1 in the 2014–15 season and managed to survive for the 2016–17 season. The club suffered greatly in their second season in NIFL Championship 1 suffering very heavy defeats to

Institute An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

, Dergview, Knockbreda and Warrenpoint Town with the club sitting rock bottom of Championship 1. They did, however, pull of a massive shock in the League Cup when they defeated

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

3-2 with Nacho Novo scoring his first goal for the East Belfast side in what was Alan Kernaghan's last game in charge of

. 2018–19 season saw the club under the leadership of Manager Ciaran McGurgan assisted with Simon Haffey as Assistant Manager and Coaches Paul Matchett, John Convery and Alan Murphy. It started well with the club sitting well in the league having been unbeaten from August 2018 to January 2019. They finished as league runners-up and competed with the PSNI from NIFL Championship in a two legged play off losing 5-3 on aggregate. 2019–20 season, the club started well. With 14 games played the club was top of the league on 33 points having recorded 10 wins and 3 draws but March 2020 brought the Coronavirus Pandemic, leading to all football being suspended. At the NIFL’s Board meeting on Monday 22 June, the Board determined that following the conclusion of the consultation process with all member clubs via Management Committees, and the appraisal of all season-end options, the current league season would be curtailed immediately. It was also determined that the NIFL would engage an independent football data consultancy to recommend and apply a mathematical model in order to determine final standings in each division. In June 2020 Annagh United were successfully crowned NIFL Premier Intermediate League Champions and promoted to the NIFL Championship. With no league games for NIFL Championship or PIL Premiership teams and no fans allowed into games due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation it was decided to play the Irish Cup and the team in April 2021 played away to Linfield in the

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...

performing valiantly well in a 2-0 defeat. The 2021-22 saw Annagh United finish the season 2nd place in the NIFL Championship behind winners Newry City, as well as reaching the Mid Ulster Cup final, losing to Warrenpoint Town. Annagh would go into the promotion play-off for a place in the

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...

against neighbors

in what was a remarkable achievement for a club like Annagh, who had never been in this position before. The 2 legs would draw large crowds and resulted in Portadown winning 3-2 at the BMG Arena and 1-0 at Shamrock Park in the return leg to retain their NIFL Premiership status. The following the season the club would have another run at the play offs, this time against Dungannon Swifts, after a valliant 2-1 win at the BMG Arena, a 2-0 defeat in the 2nd leg would see Annaghs wait for a maiden promotion to Northern Irelands top flight continue.

Honours

Intermediate honours

NIFL Premier Intermediate League The NIFL Premier Intermediate League is the third division of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national association football league in Northern Ireland, and the highest intermediate division in Northern Ireland, occupying level three in ...

1 **2019–20

Current squad

References

External links

Irish Football Club Project

Irish Premier League Website

Irish FA Website

Irish League Supporters' Forums

nifootball.co.uk (fixtures, results and tables of all leagues)
{{Coord, 54, 24, 34.4, N, 6, 26, 17.9, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Former senior Irish Football League clubs Association football clubs established in 1963 Association football clubs in Northern Ireland Association football clubs in County Armagh 1963 establishments in Northern Ireland NIFL Premier Intermediate League clubs Sport in Portadown