2002–03 Irish League

Irish League First Division
Champions	Dungannon Swifts
Promoted	Dungannon Swifts; Ballymena United; Limavady United; Larne
Relegated	Bangor; Carrick Rangers; Ballyclare Comrades; Armagh City
Matches played	112
Goals scored	377 (3.37 per match)
	← 2001–02 2003–04 →

Irish League Premier Division
Season	2002–03
Champions	Glentoran; 21st Irish title
Matches played	228
Goals scored	597 (2.62 per match)
Top goalscorer	Vinny Arkins (29)
	← 2001–02 2003–04 →

The 2002–03 Irish League was the 102nd edition of the Irish League, the highest level of league competition in Northern Irish football. The league consisted of 12 teams, and Glentoran won the championship.

Premier Division

Belfast

Belfast teams : Cliftonville
Crusaders
Glentoran
Linfield

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Location of teams in the 2002–03 Irish League Premier Division

2002–03 Irish League is located in Greater Belfast

Location of the Belfast-based teams in the 2002–03 Irish League Premier Division

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Glentoran (C)	38	28	6	4	78	22	+56	90	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Portadown	38	24	8	6	89	36	+53	80	Qualification for the UEFA Cup qualifying round
3	Coleraine	38	21	10	7	66	38	+28	73	Qualification for the UEFA Cup qualifying round
4	Linfield	38	17	12	9	70	41	+29	63
5	Omagh Town	38	15	6	17	47	57	−10	51	Qualification for the Intertoto Cup first round
6	Institute	38	12	6	20	44	75	−31	42

7	Ards	38	12	10	16	27	39	−12	46
8	Lisburn Distillery	38	12	6	20	39	49	−10	42
9	Cliftonville	38	9	14	15	37	43	−6	41
10	Glenavon	38	8	12	18	41	67	−26	36
11	Crusaders	38	9	9	20	26	61	−35	36
12	Newry Town	38	8	7	23	33	69	−36	31	Qualification for the promotion/relegation play-off

Source: rsssf.com
(C) Champions

Results

Matches 1–22

During matches 1–22 each team plays every other team twice (home and away).

Home \ Away	ARD	CLI	COL	CRU	GLV	GLT	INS	LIN	DIS	NEW	OMA	POR
Ards		0–0	0–1	2–2	1–1	1–2	3–0	1–2	1–0	2–1	0–0	0–2
Cliftonville	1–0		1–1	0–1	3–1	0–1	2–0	2–2	0–2	1–0	2–1	0–3
Coleraine	2–0	1–1		3–3	3–2	0–0	3–0	3–1	1–4	3–0	0–1	1–0
Crusaders	0–2	0–0	0–0		0–2	2–4	1–0	1–3	0–2	0–0	0–3	0–4
Glenavon	1–1	2–1	2–2	1–1		0–3	3–1	0–0	1–2	3–2	1–3	0–5
Glentoran	3–0	3–0	2–0	4–0	2–0		4–1	3–2	2–0	3–1	2–0	0–1
Institute	2–0	1–1	1–3	2–0	0–0	1–5		1–0	0–1	3–2	0–0	3–3
Linfield	3–1	2–2	2–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	2–3		1–4	3–0	3–1	0–1
Lisburn Distillery	1–0	0–3	1–1	2–1	0–2	1–3	1–2	0–2		2–1	1–2	2–4
Newry Town	1–3	0–3	0–2	0–3	2–2	0–2	1–0	0–6	1–0		1–4	0–0
Omagh Town	0–1	2–1	0–3	2–1	3–1	0–2	3–2	1–1	3–0	0–2		1–1
Portadown	1–1	1–0	1–2	1–0	6–0	2–0	4–1	3–1	3–0	4–2	3–1

Source: Irish League Archive
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 23–33

During matches 23–33 each team will play every other team for the third time (either at home, or away).

Home \ Away	ARD	CLI	COL	CRU	GLV	GLT	INS	LIN	DIS	NEW	OMA	POR
Ards		0–0		0–0		0–2	1–0			1–0		0–3
Cliftonville				0–1		0–2	1–3			1–1
Coleraine	3–1	4–3			4–1				2–1		0–1
Crusaders			0–2		2–0			0–5		0–2	2–0	0–5
Glenavon	3–0	1–1				0–1	0–2	2–2	0–2
Glentoran			1–0	0–1			6–1	0–0		2–1		1–0
Institute			0–1	2–1				2–0		0–1	3–1	1–0
Linfield	1–0	0–0	2–0							4–0		3–2
Lisburn Distillery	0–1	1–1		0–1		0–1	1–1	1–2
Newry Town			0–0		2–2				0–1		0–1	0–3
Omagh Town	0–1	2–1			2–0	0–4		1–1	0–3
Portadown		2–1	1–5		2–1				1–1		5–1

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 34–38

During matches 34–38 each team will play every other team in their half of the table once. As this is the fourth time that teams play each other this season, home sides are chosen so that they will have played each other twice at home and twice away.

Section A

Home \ Away	COL	GLT	INS	LIN	OMA	POR
Coleraine		2–2	2–1	3–1		1–1
Glentoran					0–0
Institute		0–4
Linfield		1–1	7–0		1–0
Omagh Town	0–2		4–1			3–5
Portadown		3–0	3–3	0–0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Section B

Home \ Away	ARD	CLI	CRU	GLV	DIS	NEW
Ards		0–0		1–0	1–0
Cliftonville				2–0	1–0
Crusaders	0–0	1–0			1–1
Glenavon			2–0			3–2
Lisburn Distillery				0–0		1–2
Newry Town	1–0	1–1	3–0

Source: Irish League Archive
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

First Division

Location of teams in the 2002–03 Irish League First Division

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Dungannon Swifts (C, P)	28	18	6	4	61	32	+29	60	Promotion to the Irish Premier League
2	Ballymena United (P)	28	16	6	6	71	40	+31	54
3	Limavady United (P)	28	15	5	8	53	37	+16	50
4	Larne (P)	28	13	4	11	35	30	+5	43
5	Bangor (R)	28	12	5	11	40	39	+1	41	Qualification for the promotion/relegation play-off
6	Carrick Rangers (R)	28	8	4	16	44	76	−32	28	Entered the Irish First Division
7	Ballyclare Comrades (R)	28	6	4	18	36	65	−29	22
8	Armagh City (R)	28	4	6	18	37	58	−21	18

Source: rsssf.com
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated

Promotion/relegation play-off

Newry Town, who finished in the relegation play-off place, faced Bangor, the 5th-placed team in the First Division, in a two-legged tie for a place in next season's Irish Premier League.

6 May 2003

Bangor	0 – 0	Newry Town

Clandeboye Park, Bangor

9 May 2003

Newry Town	2 – 1	Bangor

The Showgrounds, Newry

Newry Town won 2–1 on aggregate

References

Northern Ireland - List of final tables (RSSSF)

v t e NIFL Premiership seasons
Irish League	1890–91 1891–92 1892–93 1893–94 1894–95 1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–00 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03
Irish Premier League	2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08
IFA Premiership	2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13
NIFL Premiership	2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Belfast & District League (wartime)	1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19
Northern Regional League (wartime)	1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47

v t e 2002–03 in Northern Irish football
Domestic leagues	Irish League Premier Division Irish League First Division
Domestic cups	Irish Cup Irish League Cup County Antrim Shield Ulster Cup
European competitions	UEFA Champions League UEFA Cup UEFA Intertoto Cup
Related to national team	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying (Group 6)

v t e 2002–03 in European men's football (UEFA)
Domestic leagues	Albania Andorra Armenia '02 '03 Austria Azerbaijan Belarus '02 '03 Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia '02 '03 Faroe Islands '02 '03 Finland '02 '03 France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '02 '03 Israel Italy Kazakhstan '02 '03 Latvia '02 '03 Lithuania '02 '03 Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '02 '03 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland Romania Russia '02 '03 San Marino Scotland Serbia and Montenegro Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden '02 '03 Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales
Domestic cups	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia Faroe Islands '02 '03 Finland '02 '03 France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '02 '03 Israel Italy Kazakhstan '02 '03 Latvia '02 '03 Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '02 '03 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland Romania Russia San Marino Scotland Serbia and Montenegro Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden '02 '03 Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales
League cups	England Finland '02 '03 France Germany Iceland '02 '03 Israel Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
UEFA competitions	Champions League (Qualifying phase, Group stage, 2nd Group stage, knockout stage, Final) UEFA Cup (Qualifying round, First round, Second round, Final phase, Final) Intertoto Cup Super Cup