Football records in Northern Ireland

This page details football records in the Northern Ireland.

League

Team records

Titles

• Most top-flight league titles: 51, Linfield

• Most consecutive league titles: 6, joint record:
  • Belfast Celtic (1935–36 to 1947–48, league suspended from 1940–47)
  • Linfield (1981–82 to 1986–87)

Top-flight Appearances

• Most seasons in the top flight: 115, joint record:
  • Cliftonville (1890–present)
  • Glentoran (1890–present)
  • Linfield (1890–present)

Overall top flight League Table (since 2008)

The overall top flight League table is a cumulative record of all match results, points and goals of every team that has played in the top flight in its current format - namely the IFA/NIFL Premiership since its inception in 2008. Teams in bold are part of the 2015–16 Premiership season. Numbers in bold are the record numbers in each column.

As of the end of the 2014–15 season.

Rank	Club	Seasons completed	Matches played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Goals scored	Goals conceded	Goal difference	Total points	Titles	Runners-up	Avg Pts/season	Best finish
1	Linfield	7	266	161	54	51	523	263	+260	537	3	3	76.71	1st
2	Crusaders	7	266	143	62	61	503	329	+174	491	1	2	70.14	1st
3	Cliftonville	7	266	142	57	67	518	332	+186	483	2	1	69.00	1st
4	Glentoran	7	266	126	65	75	435	312	+123	443	1	0	63.29	1st
5	Coleraine	7	266	102	65	99	383	374	+9	371	0	0	53.00	4th
6	Portadown	6	228	102	49	77	388	324	+64	355	0	1	59.17	2nd
7	Ballymena United	7	266	87	63	116	363	442	–79	324	0	0	46.29	7th
8	Glenavon	7	266	90	52	124	437	466	–29	322	0	0	46.00	3rd
9	Dungannon Swifts	7	266	75	74	117	326	433	–107	299	0	0	42.71	5th
10	Lisburn Distillery	5	190	52	38	100	233	357	–124	194	0	0	38.80	4th
11	Ballinamallard United	3	114	35	26	53	124	184	–60	131	0	0	43.67	5th
12	Newry City	3	114	27	31	56	122	185	–63	112	0	0	37.33	8th
13	Institute	3	114	23	31	60	119	201	–82	100	0	0	33.33	7th
14	Donegal Celtic	3	114	26	22	66	131	249	–118	100	0	0	33.33	8th
15	Warrenpoint Town	2	76	16	18	42	93	148	–55	66	0	0	33.00	11th
16	Bangor	1	38	9	9	20	42	67	–25	36	0	0	36.00	11th
17	Carrick Rangers	1	38	7	10	21	50	91	–41	31	0	0	31.00	12th
18	Ards	1	38	6	6	26	44	83	–39	24	0	0	24.00	12th

League or status:

	2015–16 NIFL Premiership
	2015–16 NIFL Championship
	Dissolved

Irish Cup

• Most wins: 42, Linfield

• Most consecutive wins: 4, Glentoran (1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87 & 1987–88)

• Most final appearances: 61, Linfield

• Most consecutive final appearances: 5, Linfield (1890–91, 1891–92, 1892–93, 1893–94 & 1894–95)

• Most final defeats: 20, Linfield

• Most consecutive final defeats: 3, Linfield (1974–75, 1975–76 & 1976–77)

• Biggest final winning margin: Linfield 10–1 Bohemians (1894–95)

• Longest gap between wins: 70 years, Cliftonville (1908–09 and 1978–79)

• Longest gap between final appearances: 55 years, Bangor (1937–38 and 1992–93)

• Most final appearances without winning: 5, Larne (1927–28, 1934–35, 1986–87, 1988–89 & 2004–05)

• Most common final: Glentoran v Linfield (15 times)

League Cup

• Most wins: 9, Linfield
• Most consecutive wins: 4, Cliftonville (2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15 & 2015–16)
• Most final appearances: 12, joint record:
  • Glentoran
  • Linfield
• Most consecutive final appearances: 4, Cliftonville (2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15 & 2015–16)
• Most final defeats: 5, joint record:
  • Coleraine (1992–93, 1993–94, 1999–2000, 2009–10 & 2011–12)
  • Glentoran (1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2001–02 & 2005–06)
  • Crusaders (1986–87, 1995–96, 2007–08, 2012–13 & 2013–14)
• Most consecutive final defeats: 3, Glentoran (1996–97, 1997–98 & 1998–99)
• Biggest final winning margin: 4–0, joint record:
  • Linfield 4–0 Coleraine (1999–2000)
  • Cliftonville 4–0 Crusaders (2012–13)
• Longest gap between wins: 15 years, Crusaders (1996–97 and 2011–12)
• Longest gap between final appearances: 21 years, Ards (1994–95 and 2015–16)
• Most final appearances without winning: 2, joint record:
  • Larne (1991–92 & 2003–04)
  • Newry City (1989–90 and 2008–09)
• Most common final: Glentoran v Linfield (7 times)

Total titles won

Team	Domestic									All Ireland	Total
	Irish League	Irish Cup	League Cup	City Cup	Gold Cup	Ulster Cup	Floodlit Cup	Others [note 1]	Regional cups [note 2]	[note 3]
Linfield	51	42	9	24	33	15	2	29½	43	4	252½
Glentoran	23	22	7	18	15	9	2	9	27	2	134
Belfast Celtic	14	8	-	11	6	-	-	10	8	½	57½
Glenavon	3	6	1	5	4	3	2	2	26	1	53
Lisburn Distillery	5½	12	1	5	5	2	-	4½	14	½	49½
Coleraine	1	5	1	2	4	8	-	1	21	2	45
Cliftonville	4½	8	5	-	3	-	1	13	10	-	44½
Portadown	4	3	2	-	6	2	-	4	21	1	43
Derry City	1	3	1	2	-	-	-	1	16	-	24
Crusaders	5	3	2	-	2	3	-	1	6	1	23
Ballymena United	-	5	-	1	1	3[note 4]	-	-	6	-	16
Newry City	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	15	-	15
Ards	1	3	-	-	2	1	-	-	3	1	11
Bangor	-	1	1	2	-	2	-	1	4	-	11
Dungannon Swifts	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	8	-	9
Limavady United	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	9	-	9
Derry Celtic	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	8	-	8
Institute	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	6	-	6
Omagh Town	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	6	-	6
Queen's Island [II]	1	1	-	3	-	-	-	-	1	-	6
Banbridge Town	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	5	-	5
Shelbourne	-	3	-	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	5
Black Watch	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	2
Carrick Rangers	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	2
Larne	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	-	-	-	2
Loughgall	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	2
Tobermore United	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	2
Armagh City	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	1
Ballyclare Comrades	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	1
Ballymena	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Bohemians	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Dundela	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Gordon Highlanders	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Moyola Park	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
North Staffordshire Regiment	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	1
Oldpark	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	1
Queen's Island [I]	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Ulster	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Willowfield	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1

Notes

1. Charity Shield; Top Four Cup; Carlsberg Cup; Alhambra Cup; Belfast Charities Cup; Jubilee Cup
2. County Antrim Shield; North West Cup; Mid-Ulster Cup
3. Dublin and Belfast Intercity Cup; North-South Cup; Blaxnit Cup; Texaco Cup; Tyler Cup; Setanta Sports Cup
4. Includes 1 Festival of Britain Cup