2015–16 NIFL Championship

NIFL Championship
Season 2015–16

The 2015–16 NIFL Championship (known as the Belfast Telegraph Championship for sponsorship reasons)[1] is the eighth and final season of the competition in this format since its establishment after a major overhaul of the league system in Northern Ireland, and the third season of the league as part of the Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL), which took over from the Irish Football Association (IFA) for the 2013–14 season onwards.[2] The season began on 8 August 2015, and is scheduled to conclude on 30 April 2016.

Changes from 2014–15

Competition changes

League restructure proposals to be introduced over a three-season period were approved by the NIFL on 25 June 2014. The second phase, coming into effect this season, amended the Championship rules:

Team changes

Carrick Rangers won the previous season's Championship 1 title, winning promotion back to the top flight for the first time since their relegation in the 2011–12 season.[3] In the bottom two, Dundela and PSNI were relegated to this season's Championship 2, while Lurgan Celtic and Annagh United went in the opposite direction after finishing first and second in Championship 2. For the second successive season, a club was relegated to regional football. Ballymoney United finished bottom of Championship 2 and were relegated to a regional division for the following season. As a result, Championship 2 reduced in size to 14 clubs.

Promoted from Championship 1 to the Premiership

Relegated from the Premiership to Championship 1

Promoted from Championship 2 to Championship 1

Relegated from Championship 1 to Championship 2

Relegated from Championship 2 to Level 4 Regional League

Championship 1

NIFL Championship 1
Champions Ards
Promoted Ards
Relegated Bangor (demoted)
Donegal Celtic
Lisburn Distillery
Matches played 182
Goals scored 632 (3.47 per match)
Biggest home win Armagh City 6–0 Lurgan Celtic
(7 November 2015)
Biggest away win Lisburn Distillery 1–9 Armagh City
(2 April 2016)
Highest scoring Loughgall 3–7 Larne
(17 October 2015)
Lisburn Distillery 1–9 Armagh City
(2 April 2016)

Stadia and locations

Club Stadium Location Capacity
Annagh United Tandragee Road Portadown 1,250 (100 seated)
Ards Clandeboye Park Bangor 2,850 (500 seated)
Armagh City Holm Park Armagh 3,000 (330 seated)
Ballyclare Comrades Dixon Park Ballyclare 1,800 (500 seated)
Bangor Clandeboye Park Bangor 2,850 (500 seated)
Dergview Darragh Park Castlederg 1,200 (100 seated)
Donegal Celtic Donegal Celtic Park Belfast 2,330 (650 seated)
Harland & Wolff Welders Tillysburn Park Belfast 3,000 (100 seated)
Institute Riverside Stadium Drumahoe 3,110 (1,540 seated)
Knockbreda Breda Park Knockbreda 1,000 (100 seated)
Larne Inver Park Larne 1,100 (656 seated)
Lisburn Distillery New Grosvenor Stadium Ballyskeagh 7,000 (540 seated)
Loughgall Lakeview Park Loughgall 3,000 (180 seated)
Lurgan Celtic Knockrammer Park Lurgan 1,000 (100 seated)

League table

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation[lower-alpha 1]
1 Ards (C, P) 26 17 3 6 59 35 +24 54 Promotion to NIFL Premiership
2 Harland & Wolff Welders[lower-alpha 2] 26 15 6 5 54 28 +26 51
3 Armagh City[lower-alpha 2] 26 13 5 8 64 36 +28 44
4 Knockbreda[lower-alpha 2] 26 12 7 7 48 32 +16 43
5 Institute 26 12 6 8 40 20 +20 42 Qualification to NIFL Premiership play-off[lower-alpha 3]
6 Larne 26 12 6 8 64 45 +19 42
7 Lurgan Celtic 26 11 6 9 40 40 0 39
8 Ballyclare Comrades 26 9 10 7 44 40 +4 37
9 Loughgall 26 10 6 10 45 54 9 36
10 Bangor (R) 26 10 5 11 44 40 +4 35 Demotion to NIFL Premier Intermediate League[lower-alpha 4]
11 Dergview 26 9 8 9 41 40 +1 35
12 Annagh United[lower-alpha 5] 26 7 6 13 37 57 20 27
13 Donegal Celtic (R) 26 2 4 20 34 80 46 10 Relegation to NIFL Premier Intermediate League
14 Lisburn Distillery (R) 26 2 4 20 18 85 67 10
Source: Northern Ireland Football League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Drawing of lots.[6]
(C) Champion; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated.
Notes:
  1. Teams played each other twice (once at home and once away) for a total of 26 matches.
  2. 1 2 3 Harland & Wolff Welders, Armagh City and Knockbreda did not apply for the Promotion Licence required for promotion to the Premiership. As a result, they were ineligible for the Premiership play-off.
  3. As the highest-ranked Championship 1 club outside the top two to successfully attain a Promotion Licence, Institute qualified for the NIFL Premiership play-off against the 11th-placed Premiership club.
  4. Bangor were demoted to the third tier as their application for the mandatory second tier Championship Licence was refused.[4] As a result, the highest-ranked Championship 2 club to successfully attain the licence (PSNI) was automatically promoted to replace Bangor in the second tier.
  5. Limavady United (in Championship 2) applied for the mandatory second tier 'Championship Licence' but were refused. As a result, the 12th-placed Championship 1 club was reprieved from relegation.[5]

Results

Each team will play every other team twice (once at home, and once away) for a total of 26 games.

Home ╲ Away ANN ARD ARMBCCBGRDGVDGCHARINSKNBLRNLISLGLLGC
Annagh United 13 21 11 13 33 23 05 02 12 05 12 32 23
Ards 40 10 21 21 02 21 33 02 20 22 52 30 11
Armagh City 11 43 40 34 31 22 12 31 21 01 30 40 60
Ballyclare Comrades 22 02 21 31 11 31 33 10 13 32 41 11 13
Bangor 13 24 20 01 20 50 12 10 22 21 30 22 03
Dergview 44 10 01 04 12 22 11 00 10 30 11 24 31
Donegal Celtic 01 23 13 04 13 26 12 14 12 16 14 01 12
Harland & Wolff Welders 30 34 11 30 10 30 62 30 10 21 10 20 02
Institute 01 12 20 11 00 00 31 20 40 11 30 20 30
Knockbreda 33 20 13 22 10 30 33 10 10 30 22 22 00
Larne 20 16 44 00 11 32 50 21 13 03 61 22 10
Lisburn Distillery 03 03 19 11 22 03 03 03 04 03 07 15 04
Loughgall 10 20 33 32 43 02 31 22 10 07 37 30 01
Lurgan Celtic 12 12 02 22 21 02 33 11 22 21 23 20 21

Source: NI Football League
1 ^ The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Championship 2

NIFL Championship 2
Promoted PSNI
Relegated Coagh United
Portstewart
Wakehurst
Matches played 175
Goals scored 545 (3.11 per match)
Biggest home win Sport & Leisure Swifts 7–1 Wakehurst
(19 March 2016)
Biggest away win Banbridge Town 0–6 Sport & Leisure Swifts
(5 September 2015)
Highest scoring Queen's University 4–5 Portstewart
(28 November 2015)

Stadia and locations

Club Stadium Location Capacity
Banbridge Town Crystal Park Banbridge 1,500 (100 seated)
Coagh United Hagan Park Coagh 2,000 (179 seated)
Dollingstown Planters Park Lurgan 1,000 (100 seated)
Dundela Wilgar Park Belfast 2,500 (100 seated)
Glebe Rangers Riada Stadium Ballymoney 5,752 (218 seated)
Limavady United The Showgrounds Limavady 1,000 (174 seated)
Moyola Park Mill Meadow Castledawson 1,000 (200 seated)
Newington YC Seaview Belfast 3,383 (all seated)
Portstewart Seahaven Portstewart 1,000 (100 seated)
PSNI Newforge Lane Belfast 500 (112 seated)
Queen's University Dub Stadium Belfast 1,000 (100 seated)
Sport & Leisure Swifts Glen Road Heights Belfast 500 (215 seated)
Tobermore United Fortwilliam Park Tobermore 1,500 (100 seated)
Wakehurst Mill Meadow Castledawson 1,000 (200 seated)

League table

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation[lower-alpha 1]
1 Limavady United[lower-alpha 2] 25 17 5 3 64 27 +37 56
2 PSNI (P) 25 17 5 3 52 23 +29 56 Promotion to NIFL Championship[lower-alpha 3]
3 Sport & Leisure Swifts 25 13 8 4 59 26 +33 47
4 Tobermore United 25 13 5 7 38 29 +9 44
5 Moyola Park 25 12 5 8 40 27 +13 41
6 Banbridge Town 25 8 9 8 33 34 1 33
7 Queen's University 25 9 6 10 31 36 5 33
8 Dundela 25 10 3 12 35 46 11 33
9 Glebe Rangers 25 9 5 11 31 42 11 32
10 Newington YC 25 8 7 10 36 37 1 31 Relegation to tier 4 regional league
11 Dollingstown 25 8 7 10 42 48 6 31
12 Coagh United (R) 25 6 4 15 27 50 23 22
13 Portstewart (R) 25 6 3 16 33 55 22 21
14 Wakehurst (R) 25 1 4 20 24 65 41 7
Updated to match(es) played on 28 April 2016. Source: Northern Ireland Football League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Drawing of lots.[6]
(P) Promoted; (R) Relegated.
Notes:
  1. Teams play each other twice (once at home and once away) for a total of 26 matches.
  2. Limavady United were ineligible for promotion as their application for the mandatory second tier licence was refused.[5]
  3. Bangor (in Championship 1) were demoted to the third tier as they failed to apply for the mandatory second tier 'Championship Licence'.[4] As a result, PSNI, the highest-ranked Championship 2 club to successfully attain the licence was automatically promoted to replace Bangor in the second tier.

Results

Each team will play every other team twice (once at home, and once away) for a total of 26 games.

Home ╲ Away BBT COA DOLDNDGBELIMMOYNTNPSTPSNQUESLSTOBWAK
Banbridge Town 12 11 20 01 20 03 11 20 11 01 06 34 10
Coagh United 11 21 23 00 25 13 11 10 10 01 01 10
Dollingstown 15 31 40 22 01 10 33 30 12 12 22 00 42
Dundela 01 31 23 32 02 03 10 31 01 11 25 40 32
Glebe Rangers 10 32 31 04 13 11 13 12 10 04 21 21
Limavady United 22 41 31 20 11 10 40 31 42 11 22 51
Moyola Park 00 30 61 00 10 04 03 20 01 11 11 22 41
Newington YC 00 31 52 01 41 04 20 20 11 01 12 23 10
Portstewart 13 02 22 31 23 30 34 03 21 11 25 22
PSNI 33 30 31 32 10 30 30 50 40 42 20 20
Queen's University 11 32 02 00 03 02 32 10 45 40 12 02 31
Sport & Leisure Swifts 40 11 13 31 41 12 11 10 00 00 02 71
Tobermore United 31 21 20 50 01 11 01 21 10 11 10 04 01
Wakehurst 12 22 12 23 22 15 03 02 12 23 04 00

Updated to games played on 28 April 2016.
Source: NI Football League
1 ^ The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

References

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