Ards

Full name	Ards Football Club
Nicknames	Red & Blue Army
Founded	1900; 125 years ago (1900)
Ground	Clandeboye Park,Bangor County Down
Capacity	2,000 (500 seated)
Chairman	Warren Patton
Manager	John Bailie
League	NIFL Championship
2024–25	NIFL Championship, 5th of 12
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Ards Football Club is a semi-professional, Northern Irishfootball club playing inNIFL Championship. The club is based inNewtownards, but plays its home matches atClandeboye Park inBangor, which it rents from rivalsBangor 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 theNIFL 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 sidesBallinamallard United andColeraine before losing 3–0 in the final toCliftonville at Solitude. Ards kept a comfortable hold at the top of the table before becoming league champions on the last day of the season beatingLoughgall 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 ofMovilla 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 asBallymena United centre-back Johnny Taylor, and formerGlenavon striker Gary Liggett. Other recruitments included defender Stuart McMullan and French strikerGuillaume Keke, both signed fromLarne. Ards started the season with a credible 2–2 draw withCliftonville 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 clubPortadown the club appointedGlentoran legendColin Nixon as his replacement.

Plans were under-way to develop Londonderry Park as the new grounds for the team. Planning officials gaveArds 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 inNewtownards, was the best option and the Ards Council accepted thetender 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 24th August 2025^[6]

Number	Name	Nationality
1	Marc Matthews (GK)	Northern Irish
2	Max Greer	Northern Irish
3	Connor Maxwell	Northern Irish
4	Caolan Loughran (On loan fromBallymena United)	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	Kielan Reid	Northern Irish
14	Ethan Simpson (On loan fromLarne)	Northern Irish
15	Jamie Browne	Northern Irish
16	Caolan Donnelly	Northern Irish
17	Connor Scannell	Northern Irish
18	Paul Donnelly	Northern Irish
19	Darius Roohi	Northern Irish
20	Steven Gordon	Northern Irish
21	Mark Carson	Northern Irish
22	George Tipton	Northern Irish
23	Jack Reilly	Northern Irish
26	William Francey	Northern Irish
30	Adam Ritchie (GK)	Northern Irish
32	James Taylor (GK)	Northern Irish

• Irish League (tier 1): 1
  • 1957–58
• [Irish League First Division/Championship] (tier 2): 3
  • 2000–01, 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]
  • 1957–58†
• 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††

Clements Lyttle Cup

• • 1941-42, 1942-43††

† Won by Ards II†† Won by Ards playing as Ards II during war years

Number ofcaps 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, 1 cap (Northern Ireland), 1962
• Paul Kee, 2 caps (Northern Ireland), 1994

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

• Ards F.C.
• Association football clubs established in 1900
• Association football clubs in Northern Ireland
• Sport in Newtownards
• Association football clubs in County Down
• 1900 establishments in Ireland

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use British English from April 2018
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Use dmy dates from April 2018
• Short description is different from Wikidata