Bryansburn Rangers Football Club is a
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 ...
, intermediate
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
club playing in Division 1B of the
Northern Amateur Football League
The Northern Amateur Football League, also known as the Northern Amateur League and often simply as the Amateur League, is an association football league in Northern Ireland. It contains 13 divisions. These comprise four intermediate sections: ...
. The club are from
Bangor, County Down
Bangor ( ; ) is a city and seaside resort in County Down, Northern Ireland, on the southern side of Belfast Lough. It is within the Belfast metropolitan area and is 13 miles (22 km) east of Belfast city centre, to which it is linked ...
and play their home matches at Ballywooley Park on the Crawfordsburn Road. The club was founded in 1974 and joined the Amateur League in 1984.
[H. Johnstone & G. Hamilton (n.d.) ''A Memorable Milestone: 75 Years of the Northern Amateur Football League'', p. 184]
Bryansburn field 3 senior teams in total. As well as the first team, there is a second team playing in
Northern Amateur Football League
The Northern Amateur Football League, also known as the Northern Amateur League and often simply as the Amateur League, is an association football league in Northern Ireland. It contains 13 divisions. These comprise four intermediate sections: ...
Division 3D along with 3rd team that compete in the Down Area League, Division 1. The first team were promoted to Division 1A at the end of 2009–10 season, however 2 back to back relegation's left the team in 1C. After a number of years in 1C, the 1st team gained promotion once again to 1B in the 17/18 season, finishing runners up to
18th Newtownabbey Old Boys F.C.
18th Newtownabbey Old Boys' Football Club is a Northern Ireland, Northern Irish, intermediate football club playing in Division 1C of the Northern Amateur Football League. The club is based in Newtownabbey. The club plays in the Irish Cup.
Ref ...
The club competes in a number of cup competitions in Northern Ireland, such as the
Steel & Sons Cup
The Steel & Sons Cup (also referred to as the Steel Cup) is an intermediate football competition in Northern Ireland run by the North East Ulster Football Association (also known as the County Antrim & District Football Association).
The compe ...
, 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 ...
, 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 ...
, the Clarence Cup and the Border Cup.
The club appointed former player Andy Thompson as their new manager on the 22nd June 2023. Thompson made 425 competitive appearances for the club between 1998 and 2017.
Squad 2023-2024
Honours
Intermediate honours
*
Northern Amateur Football League 1C
**2017/18 (Runners up)
Junior honours
*
Northern Amateur Football League 2C: 2
**1996/97
**2000/01
Notable events
On Sunday 29 March 2015, in the lead up to the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifier between
Northern Ireland national football team
The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. From 1882 to 1920, all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team (1882–1950), Ireland natio ...
and
Finland national football team
The Finland national football team ( fi, Suomen jalkapallomaajoukkue, sv, Finlands fotbollslandslag) represents Finland in men's international football competitions and is controlled by the Football Association of Finland, the governing body ...
, Bryansburns home ground 'Ballywooley' was used as a venue for the fans game between the Northern Ireland and Finland fans teams. Former Northern Ireland international
Keith Gillespie
Keith Robert Gillespie (born 18 February 1975) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who plays as a winger for FC Mindwell in the Mid-Ulster Football League.
He began his career at Manchester United after winning the FA Youth ...
who made a guest appearance for the Northern Ireland fans team, along with Finnish Legend
Jari Litmanen
Jari Olavi Litmanen (; born 20 February 1971) is a Finnish former footballer. He was the first-choice captain of the Finland national team between 1996 and 2008 in an international career that ran from 1989 to 2010.
Litmanen is widely consider ...
for the Finland fans team. Northern Ireland ran out eventual 3–1 winners.
Notable former players
*
Josh Magennis
Joshua Brendan David Magennis (born 15 August 1990) is a Northern Irish footballer who plays as a striker for Wigan Athletic. Having spent the majority of his youth career as a goalkeeper, he switched to striker in 2008 before turning professio ...
, international professional footballer from
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
, currently playing for
Wigan Athletic
Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system.
Founded in 1932, ...
in the
EFL League One
The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...
division.
Notes
Club officials
*Chairman: Alan Dempster
*Secretary: Jordan Parkes
*Treasurer: Davy Armstrong
*Groundsmen: Alex Jones
*1st team Manager: Andy Thompson
*1st Coach: Ross Gray
*1st team assistant Managers: Andy Cardwell, Rob Steventon
*Club Captain: Alan McMullan
*2nd team Manager: Ryan Connolly
*3rd team Manager: Vacant
External links
Bryansburn Rangers Official Club websitenifootball.co.uk- (For fixtures, results and tables of all Northern Ireland amateur football leagues)
{{Football in Northern Ireland
Association football clubs in Northern Ireland
Association football clubs established in 1973
Association football clubs in County Down
Northern Amateur Football League clubs
1973 establishments in Northern Ireland