Shamrock Park is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

stadium in

Portadown Portadown ( ) is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is based 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 ...

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. It is the home ground of Portadown F.C. 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. It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It originated in the southe ...

, 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 Amer ...

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. It can provide functional area lighting for travel-ways, parking, entrances, work areas, and sporting venues to enable visibility adequate for safe task performance, ornament ...

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 irradiance, as perceived by ...

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 (1882–1950), Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became t ...

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 is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

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

in the

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

. In April 2014 the

Sweden women's national football team The Sweden women's national football team (), nicknamed ''Blågult'' ("The Blue-Yellow"), represents Sweden at international women's association football competitions. It was established in 1973 and is governed by the Swedish Football Associatio ...

beat

4–0 at Shamrock Park. Swedish team manager Marika Domanski-Lyfors 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