Tag: Sports Direct Premiership
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It’s unfair to put blame at feet of Linfield and Cliftonville for Irish Cup Final crowd disorder
A penny for the thoughts of Linfield and Cliftonville this week. This year’s Irish Cup Final was a spectacular in every sense. Nearly 15,000 packed inside Windsor Park for the biggest-attended domestic fixture in Northern Ireland this century and an occasion to savour that, for the most part, featured backing from both sides that supported…
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Irish League chiefs must improve provisions in place to attract younger fans and families
Let’s get a basic fact of life out of the way first – no one likes a price hike. No one likes a price hike in the same way that no one likes paying taxes, bills, debts, insurance and other such necessary expenses which, in themselves, are rising amid a general rise in the cost…
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How the Irish FA’s new ‘Conference Layer’ for intermediate football can be big hit or own goal
Changes to the intermediate football sphere in Northern Ireland have long been touted and, going by the Irish FA’s latest update on the topic, closer than ever to coming to fruition. From the 2026-27 campaign, a new ‘Conference Layer’ will be in effect as part of a radical shake-up of the intermediate levels of the…
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Steven McCullough’s crucial goal in relegation play-off seals him as a Ballymena United great
There’s been a change in priorities for Ballymena United during recent years – albeit not necessarily the type supporters would’ve perhaps wanted. In 2019, the Braidmen were the second best team in the Irish League. Runners-up behind Linfield that year, and just seven points adrift of top spot, the peak years of David Jeffrey’s tenure…
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Ending Cliftonville’s Irish Cup drought proves Jim can fix it… now he must target league glory
Finally, it’s Cliftonville’s year in the Irish Cup. An agonising waiting game ends at last and a drought that lasted 45 painful years is over in one burst of champagne rain. Since 1979, the Reds have contrived to fail in various ways in their pursuit of that elusive ninth Irish Cup – until a man…
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The Championship can bring you up and pull you down… but you’ll always be back for more
It’s been one hell of a season in the Playr-Fit Championship. A league that literally has it all… where no holds are barred, where nothing is off the table, where to expect the unexpected would be to somehow insinuate there were even expectations in the first place. And it is dramatic until the dying embers.…
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2024 may not be Linfield’s year, but precocious Braiden Graham is a huge success story
Linfield’s record haul of Irish League titles will remain at 56. Larne’s burgeoning total of Gibson Cups bloats from one to two. The Blues simply had to win on Monday night to take the title fight down to the dying embers, but a powerful Andy Ryan penalty on 35 minutes in response to Kirk Millar’s…
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Game-changing Andy Ryan’s exploits have taken champions-elect Larne to a new level
Anyone fancy Linfield winning 18-0 on Saturday? Well, it’s expected that Cliftonville, who will do battle with the Blues in the Irish Cup Final on May 4, will field a weakened team on the Sports Direct Premiership’s last matchday, but you’d say the odds are impossibly long of such a feat occurring regardless. 18 is…
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