Milltown is a

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 ...

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

in Warrenpoint,

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Warrenpoint Town of the NIFL Premier Intermediate League. The stadium sits in the larger Milltown Sports Complex, in the area of Warrenpoint of the same name. The ground was upgraded in 2013 after Warrenpoint were promoted to the Premiership, to satisfy the rules of that league.

History

In 2008, Warrenpoint Town applied to turn the pitch from natural grass into a

3G pitch Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commerc ...

, which was granted by the Newry and Mourne District Council. In 2013, Warrenpoint Town were promoted to the NIFL Premiership. Owing to previous consecutive promotions, Milltown did not meet the Irish Football Association's criteria for use in the Premiership. As a result, the ground required renovation. Warrenpoint Town originally applied to play their home games at The Showgrounds, Newry. However the stadium owners at Newry refused them permission. Instead they were obliged to groundshare with

Dungannon Swifts Dungannon Swifts Football Club is a Northern Irish, semi-professional football club playing in the NIFL Premiership. The club, founded in 1949, has risen from the Mid-Ulster league to the top tier in Northern Ireland since its election to the ...

Stangmore Park Stangmore Park is a football stadium in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Dungannon Swifts, and holds around 2,000 spectators, 300 of whom can be seated. History Stangmore Park was opened in 1975 after a tem ...

Dungannon Dungannon () is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the second-largest town in the county (after Omagh) and had a population of 14,340 at the 2011 Census. The Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council had its headquarters in the ...

away whilst Milltown was redeveloped. Newry and Mourne Council granted Milltown £225,500 to assist with the redevelopment. On 21 December 2013, Milltown was opened for its first NIFL Premiership match between Warrenpoint Town and

Glenavon Glenavon Football Club is a Northern Irish semi-professional football club that competes in the NIFL Premiership. Founded in 1889, the club hails from Lurgan and plays its home matches at Mourneview Park. Club colours are blue and white. Gar ...

. However the match was forced to be abandoned after one of the floodlights failed. Despite the renovations, aimed to assist the ground to meet UEFA standards, observers note that the facilities are still limited at Milltown. It was used as justification for applying for a UEFA licence. Their 2019 application was refused however. In 2018, it was announced that Newry, Mourne and Down District Council planned to redevelop Milltown as the location for a new community hub due to plans to purchase a surplus Police Service of Northern Ireland station falling through. However, this proposal was not recommended to the council's committee. This was due to accessibility and location issues, which led to the council preferring to build the hub at Clonallon Park instead.

Usage

While Milltown is predominantly used by Warrenpoint Town for association football, it has also been used for

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

by Warrenpoint GAA. Milltown is considered by some opposing football managers as being a hard place to play at.

References

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History

Usage

References

See also