Portadown

Portadown Football Club is a professional, Northern Irish football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership.

The club was formed in 1887 as a junior team initially seeking to participate in the Mid-Ulster Cup, eventually joining the Irish League with the support of other local clubs in 1924.

They are based in Portadown in County Armagh and play their home matches at Shamrock Park. The club's colours are red and white; their home kit consists of red shirts, red shorts and red socks with white trim on all.

The club's main rivals are Glenavon, with their matches being known as the "Mid Ulster Derby". The club is also bitter rivals with Glentoran.

Ronnie McFall served as the club’s manager for 29 years between 1986 and 2016.

History

Junior years (1886–1924)

In 1887, the Mid Ulster Football Association was established, and in Portadown, a young group of men set about creating a football club to participate in the Mid-Ulster Cup. Early meetings were held in a dimly lit room in the Young Men's Institute in Edward Street in Portadown, where club secretary William Mullen would read the minutes by candlelight. Early matches were played at Tavanagh, Ripley's Field, Armagh Road and Old Shamrock Park which was located approximately where Clounagh Junior High School is now sited. Among the early names to turn out for The Ports were Val Wilson, who would later become High Sheriff for County Armagh; and Harry Bell, whose father owned brickworks on the Armagh Road.

The club won the Irish Junior Cup after defeating Larne at Grosvenor Park on 18 March 1899. That same season, The Ports won their first ever cup double by winning the Mid-Ulster Cup for the first time. Portadown retained the trophy the following season and the following next five seasons before the outbreak of World War I.

The junior game was very strong in the town at the time and The Ports had to compete for talent with teams such as Edenderry Arrows, Gre

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