Ards F.C.

Ards

Full name	Ards Football Club
Nickname(s)	Red & Blue Army
Founded	1900; 124 years ago (1900)
Ground	Clandeboye Park, Bangor County Down
Capacity	2,000 (500 seated)
Chairman	Warren Patton
Manager	John Bailie
League	NIFL Championship
2023–24	NIFL Championship, 10th of 12
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Ards Football Club is a semi-professional, Northern Irish football club playing in NIFL Championship. The club is based in Newtownards, but plays its home matches at Clandeboye Park in Bangor, which it rents from rivals Bangor to play home games. The club colours are red and blue.

Ards were forced to sell their Castlereagh Park home in 1998 to try to reduce their crippling debts. The stadium remained well tended for another three years while ambitious plans for a new ground further down the road were developed. In 2002 Castlereagh Park was demolished, as planned. Ards hoped to play at a new community-owned site, a stone's throw from Castlereagh Park that was due to be developed in 2010 by the local council. This plan has since been shelved, and they are still the nomads of Northern Irish football. During the time since Ards left Castlereagh Park, they have shared football grounds at Cliftonville's Solitude and Carrick Rangers' Taylors Avenue, their rivals Bangor's ground, Clandeboye Park and Ballyclare Comrades' ground, Dixon Park.

For the 2012–13 season they played their home games at Clandeboye Park and were promoted to the NIFL Premiership for the 2013–14 season and went straight back down that season..Ards 2014–15 season was a season of change, with many players coming and going from the club and the season ultimately ended in disappointment with them finishing 3rd. The 2015–16 was a better one with Ards reaching the league cup final by knocking out premiership sides Ballinamallard United and Coleraine before losing 3–0 in the final to Cliftonville at Solitude. Ards kept a comfortable hold at the top of the table before becoming league champions on the last day of the season beating Loughgall to secure their promotion back to the Premiership after a two-year absence.

Amidst proposed new plans for a stadium to be built on the grounds of Movilla High School,^[1] Ards returned to the top-flight once more under the stewardship of Niall Currie, who sought to bolster his squad with no less than 15 new signings. These included experienced Premiership players such as Ballymena United centre-back Johnny Taylor, and former Glenavon striker Gary Liggett. Other recruitments included defender Stuart McMullan and French striker Guillaume Keke, both signed from Larne. Ards started the season with a credible 2–2 draw with Cliftonville and went on to win their next three games in a row to become early leaders at the top of the league table. Following Niall Currie's move to manage hometown club Portadown the club appointed Glentoran legend Colin Nixon as his replacement.

Plans were under-way to develop Londonderry Park as the new grounds for the team. Planning officials gave Ards Borough Council the go-ahead on the £3.8 million plan in October 2010.^[2]

In 2009, supporters launched a campaign, 'Bring Ards FC Home', in which they publicised the need in the media and had discussions with politicians. Back as far as November 2008, the Council had discussed the need for a new Ards stadium. It was decided in April 2009 that Londonderry Park, on the Portaferry Road in Newtownards, was the best option and the Ards Council accepted the tender for redevelopment of the site in September 2010.^[3] Plans included upgrades to the existing grass surfaces and the addition of new synthetic surfaces, and to allow for the possibility of future upgrading to meet regulations should the need arise. The ground would have also continued to provide facilities for hockey and cricket.

However, in August 2012 it was announced that Ards Borough Council would not be proceeding with the new stadium, and the plans were shelved.^[4][5]

Season	Competition	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Aggregate
1958–59	European Cup	PR	Stade Reims	1–4	2–6	3–10
1969–70	European Cup Winners' Cup	1R	Roma	0–0	1–3	1–3
1973–74	UEFA Cup	1R	Standard Liège	3–2	1–6	4–8
1974–75	European Cup Winners' Cup	1R	PSV Eindhoven	1–4	0–10	1–14
1997	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Group 3	Royal Antwerp	0–1	—	5th
			Nea Salamis	—	1–4
			Auxerre	0–3	—
			Lausanne Sports	—	0–6

As of 31st August 2024^[6]

Number	Name	Nationality
1	Alex Moore (GK)	Northern Irish
2	Max Greer	Northern Irish
3	Connor Maxwell	Northern Irish
4	Matthew McAvoy	Northern Irish
5	Ryan Arthur	Northern Irish
6	Michael Ruddy	Northern Irish
7	Eamon Scannell	Northern Irish
8	Patrick Cafolla (Captain)	Northern Irish
9	Zach Barr	Northern Irish
10	Ciaran Dobbin	Northern Irish
11	Gary Donnelly	Northern Irish
12	Odrhan McCart	Northern Irish
14	Ethan Simpson (On loan from Larne)	Northern Irish
15	Corey McLauglin	Northern Irish
16	Aidan Steele	Northern Irish
17	Connor Scannell	Northern Irish
18	Ross Hunter	Northern Irish
19	Bobby Deane (On loan from Glenavon)	Northern Irish
20	Lee Newell	Northern Irish
21	Mark Carson	Northern Irish
22	George Tipton	Northern Irish
23	Colin Oppong	Irish
24	David Alfred	Northern Irish
25	Corai Quinn	Northern Irish
30	Marc Matthews (GK)	Northern Irish
32	Darren Gibbons (GK)	Northern Irish

• President: Billy Humphries
• Vice Presidents: Brian Adams, Ivor Edgar, Ronnie Bailie
• Chairman: Warren Patton
• Vice Chairman: Stephen Wilton
• Treasurer: Andrew McCrory
• Company Secretary: Brian Adams
• Club Secretary: Andrew Rodgers
• Manager: John Bailie
• Assistant Manager: Vacant
• First-team: Coach: Daryl Phillips
• Reserve Team Management: Matthew Shaw and Luke Buchanan
• Physiotherapist: Sam Lewis
• First-team Attendant: Peter Bloomer and Barry Edgar
• Football Secretary: Andrew Rodgers
• Directors: Warren Patton, (Chair), Stephen Wilton (Vice-Chair), Andrew McCrory (Treasurer), Jim Bailie, Gary Anderson, Stuart Dellow, Alan Graham
• Commercial Manager: Anthony Caffolla
• Digital Content Manager: Michael Barritt
• Programme Editor: Adrian Monaghan

• Irish League (tier 1): 1
  • 1957–58
• Irish League First Division (tier 2): 4
  • 2000–01, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2015–16
• Irish Cup: 4
  • 1926–27, 1951–52, 1968–69, 1973–74
• Irish League Cup: 1
  • 1994–95
• County Antrim Shield: 3
  • 1955–56, 1971–72, 1993–94
• Gold Cup: 2
  • 1953–54, 1973–74
• Ulster Cup: 1
  • 1973–74
• Blaxnit Cup: 1
  • 1973–74

• Irish League B Division/IFA Championship 1: 3
  • 1957–58†, 2012–13, 2015–16
• Irish Intermediate Cup: 1
  • 1970–71†
• Steel & Sons Cup: 1
  • 2008–09
• George Wilson Cup: 2
  • 1957–58†, 1982–83†
• McElroy Cup: 1
  • 1940–41†

† Won by Ards II (reserve team)

Number of caps listed are those gained whilst contracted to Ards FC.

• Andy Bothwell, 5 caps (Northern Ireland), 1925–27
• Tommy Forde, 4 caps (Northern Ireland), 1958–60
• Billy Humphries, 14 caps(Northern Ireland), 1962
• Paul Kee, 2 caps (Northern Ireland), 1994

• Ards FC Website
• Ards Statistics and Results at the Irish Football Club Project