Shamrock Park 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 in

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 ...

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...

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 ...

. It is the home ground of

Portadown F.C. Portadown Football Club is a professional, Northern Irish football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was formed in 1887 as a junior team seeking to participate in the Mid-Ulster Cup, eventually joining the Irish League with t ...

Shamrock Park was previously used for

stock-car racing Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

, but this has since been discontinued. The stadium is classed as an

all-seater stadium An all-seater stadium is a sports stadium in which every spectator has a seat. This is commonplace in professional association football stadiums in nations such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands. Most association football and Ame ...

but has only two seated stands around the pitch totaling 2,770 seats, with one side containing a training pitch and the other having an older seated stand which is no longer in use. When grant aid is available, the older stand will be demolished and replaced with a brand new seated stand.

Ground redevelopment

A£1.8-million 1,840-seater stand was built at the unreserved end of the ground, replacing the "shed" and opened in late 2008. It was named "The MET Steel Stand" after Portadown's long-serving sponsors. At the same time, the pitch was moved closer to the Chalet end of the stadium allowing supporters from every angle to have a better view of the football. In early February 2009 the old

floodlight A floodlight is a broad-beamed, high-intensity artificial light. They are often used to illuminate outdoor playing fields while an outdoor sports event is being held during low-light conditions. More focused kinds are often used as a stage ...

s were replaced with new 800

lux The lux (symbol: lx) is the unit of illuminance, or luminous flux per unit area, in the International System of Units (SI). It is equal to one lumen per square metre. In photometry, this is used as a measure of the intensity, as perceived by the ...

floodlights at each corner of the pitch.

International matches

Due to the extensive redevelopment of the stadium, the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team. ...

has recognised that Shamrock Park is a venue that can be used for under-age

matches. Shamrock Park was chosen for the under-21 friendly between

and

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

on 31 March 2009. On 24 November 2009 Shamrock Park staged its second international fixture, an under-23 match between Northern Ireland and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

in the

International Challenge Trophy The International Challenge Trophy, originally known as the European Challenge Trophy, is an international association football competition. It is open to national teams featuring semi-professional U-23 footballers who have not yet won senior inter ...

. In April 2014 the

Sweden women's national football team The Sweden women's national football team ( sv, Svenska damfotbollslandslaget) represents Sweden at international women's association football competitions and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association. History The Swedish team has be ...

beat

4–0 at Shamrock Park. Swedish team manager

Marika Domanski-Lyfors Marika Susan Domanski-Lyfors (born 17 May 1960), Marika Susan Domanski, is a Swedish football coach and former player. She was head coach of the Sweden women's national football team from September 1996 until June 2005 and also coached the Ch ...

ridiculed the sloping pitch and inadequate facilities, saying they were wholly unfit for international matches and like a return to the 1980s.Hur kunde Shamrock Park godkännas för VM-kval?
Damfotboll.com, 6 April 2014

References

External links

Video- The Ulster Groundhop; Shamrock Park; 7 March 2011
{{Portadown F.C. Portadown F.C. Association football venues in Northern Ireland Sports venues in County Armagh