Tag: Cliftonville
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Home advantage can help promotion-chasing Institute and Portadown spring Irish Cup shocks
With the last-16 out of the way, the Irish Cup quarter-finals will be the point of focus come the first week in March as four Premiership versus Championship clashes were revealed on Saturday. In two cases, the lower-league side is the one at home; a meeting of the first and second-tier pacesetters with Institute entertaining…
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Big guns beware… Ballyclare and Newington showed they can cut it when chips look down
The Irish Cup last-16 proved a fruitful round for Championship clubs, with six entering the fray and four coming out the other side unscathed. Indeed, there wasn’t a single instance of a Premiership club toppling a second-tier adversary, with north Down duo Bangor and Ards eliminated by division rivals Portadown and Institute respectively. Harking back…
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Oft-unsung Ronan Doherty is ready to rise out of Chris Gallagher’s shadow at Cliftonville
It was an eventful week that ended in a flourish for Cliftonville, who continue to put their title credentials on show despite the seemingly incessant rumours linking their stars with moves away in January and the summer. The drawn-out saga over one such, Chris Gallagher, finally met an end when the midfielder’s exit to Larne…
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Callum Marshall’s senior West Ham debut cherry on top of a week of dreams for club’s NI cohort
It’s been a tremendous couple of weeks for the Irish League-bred cohort of youngsters at West Ham United, with a cherry on top arriving in midweek. On Tuesday night, there was a long-awaited first-team debut for striker Callum Marshall in the Hammers’ 1-0 FA Cup Third Round defeat at Bristol City. Despite being unable to…
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Winter is a time of giving and receiving… and is set to play a key role in the Premiership title hunt
The January transfer window is nigh upon us, and for clubs across all levels of the Irish League set-up, it is a difference-making opportunity. Already the rumour mill swirls. Crusaders confirmed on Monday that 26-year-old attacking midfielder Ben Kennedy has been transfer-listed, piquing the interest of suitors both home and abroad as a mercurially gifted…
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There’s still a place in the modern domestic game for classic punishers like Joe Gormley
As we have seen throughout the past half-decade or so, the Irish League is an ever-evolving beast and clubs must sometimes be elaborate for the sake of staying competitive. Larne and Glentoran have welcomed on board the investment of Kenny Bruce in 2017 and Ali Pour in 2019 that has allowed both clubs to adopt…
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Larne’s victory over Cliftonville tees them up as the ones to halt Linfield’s irrepressible title surge
Friday night saw two big hitters in action at Inver Park, with Larne and Cliftonville facing off in a game that, although just a third of the way through the season, felt like a defining duel at the top of the table. Starting the day split by as fine a margin as their respective shades…
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Women’s football took another leap forward in 2023… and continued investment in youth will bring it to new heights
When we discuss nostalgia in the Irish League, the women’s game is of a much more recent vintage. Domestically, what was a six-team top league less than five years ago has boomed into a 10-strong Sports Direct Women’s Premiership that comes under the same banner as its male equivalent. The reasoning for the growth of…
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