2022–23 NIFL Premiership

The 2022–23 NIFL Premiership (known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th season of the NIFL Premiership, the highest level of league football in Northern Ireland, the 122nd season of Irish League football overall, and the 10th season of the league operating as part of the Northern Ireland Football League.

NIFL Premiership
Season2022–23
Dates12 Aug 2022 – 29 Apr 2023
ChampionsLarne
RelegatedPortadown
UEFA Champions LeagueLarne
UEFA Europa Conference LeagueLinfield
Crusaders (via Irish Cup)
Glentoran (via Play-offs)
Matches played228
Goals scored647 (2.84 per match)
Biggest home winLinfield 7–0 Newry City (18 March 2023)
Biggest away winPortadown 1–6 Linfield (28 January 2023)
Highest scoringCarrick Rangers 4–3 Crusaders (1 October 2022)
Highest attendance7,134 Linfield 0–3 Glentoran (14 October 2022)
Lowest attendance274 Carrick Rangers 3–0 Dungannon Swifts (15 October 2022)
All statistics correct as of 11 March 2023.

Larne were champions, winning the Irish League for the first time. They became the 13th different club to win the league since 1890, and the first addition to the list of title-winners since Coleraine in 1974.

Summary

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The 38-game season commenced on 12 August 2022 and concluded on 29 April 2023.

Linfield were the four-time defending champions, having been league winners in the previous four seasons - the 2021–22 season seeing them win a world record 56th league crown.

Larne became the champions and entered the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League first qualifying round, clinching their first league title on 14 April 2023 with a 2–0 win over Crusaders.[1] The runners-up (Linfield), the Irish Cup winners (Crusaders), and the play-off winners (Glentoran) entered the 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League first qualifying round.

Teams

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Locations of the 2022–23 NIFL Irish Premiership teams
Locations of the Belfast-based 2022–23 NIFL Irish Premiership teams

Twelve teams competed in this season's Premiership, eleven of which returned from the previous season. Warrenpoint Town finished bottom of the table the previous season, and were relegated to the NIFL Championship after five years as a Premiership club, with Championship winners Newry City promoted to replace them for this season's Premiership. 11th-placed Portadown retained their Premiership status after defeating Annagh United 4–2 on aggregate in the Premiership play-off.

Stadia and locations

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Club Stadium Location Capacity[2][3]
Ballymena United The Showgrounds Ballymena 3,824 (all seated)
Carrick Rangers Loughshore Hotel Arena Carrickfergus 2,100 (380 seated)
Cliftonville Solitude Belfast 3,054 (all seated)
Coleraine The Showgrounds Coleraine 4,843 (1,607 seated)
Crusaders Seaview Belfast 3,208 (all seated)
Dungannon Swifts Stangmore Park Dungannon 2,000 (300 seated)
Glenavon Mourneview Park Lurgan 3,302 (all seated)
Glentoran The Oval Belfast 6,054 (3,991 seated)
Larne Inver Park Larne 2,732 (1,632 seated)
Linfield Windsor Park Belfast 18,434 (all seated)
Newry City The Showgrounds Newry 2,275 (1,080 seated)
Portadown Shamrock Park Portadown 3,940 (2,765 seated)

League table

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation[a]
1 Larne (C) 38 25 8 5 64 22 +42 83 Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2 Linfield 38 23 8 7 75 27 +48 77 Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round
3 Glentoran (O) 38 23 5 10 77 28 +49 74 Qualification for the Europa Conference League play-offs
4 Cliftonville 38 20 8 10 66 53 +13 68
5 Crusaders 38 19 10 9 72 45 +27 67 Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round[b]
6 Coleraine 38 18 8 12 59 39 +20 62 Qualification for the Europa Conference League play-offs
7 Glenavon 38 14 10 14 58 61 −3 52 Qualification for the Europa Conference League play-offs
8 Carrick Rangers 38 12 4 22 45 74 −29 40
9 Ballymena United 38 11 6 21 37 55 −18 39
10 Newry City 38 9 3 26 37 71 −34 30
11 Dungannon Swifts (O) 38 9 3 26 28 84 −56 30 Qualification for the NIFL Premiership play-off
12 Portadown (R) 38 6 5 27 29 88 −59 23 Relegation to the NIFL Championship
Source: Northern Ireland Football League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Drawing of lots[4]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:
  1. ^ Teams play each other three times (33 matches), before the league is split into two groups (the top six and the bottom six).
  2. ^ Crusaders entered the Europa Conference League first qualifying round as 2022–23 Irish Cup winners.


Results

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Matches 34–38

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For the final five matches, the table splits into two halves, with the top six teams forming Section A and the bottom six teams forming Section B. Each team plays every other team in their respective section once. The fixtures are reversed from those played during rounds 23–33, ensuring that teams have played every other team in their respective section twice at home and twice away overall throughout the season.

Play-offs

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UEFA Europa Conference League play-offs

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Four or five of the clubs that finish in 3rd–7th place compete for one place in the 2023–24 Europa Conference League first qualifying round. The play-offs are one-off matches with extra time and penalties used to determine the winner if necessary, with the higher-ranked teams given home advantage against the lower-ranked teams (i.e. 3rd v. 7th and 5th v. 6th) in the semi-finals. The higher-ranked of the two semi-final winners also gains home advantage in the final.

Semi-finals

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10 May 2023 Cliftonville 2–1ColeraineSolitude
19:45 BST (UTC+01) Curran   4'
Doherty   20'
Shevlin   72'
10 May 2023 Glentoran 5–0GlenavonThe Oval
19:45 BST (UTC+01) McCullough   3'
McMenamin   35'
Garrett   53' (o.g.)
J. Donnelly   73'
R. Donnelly   78'

Final

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NIFL Premiership play-off

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The eleventh-placed club (Dungannon Swifts) were expected to face the second-placed club from the 2022–23 NIFL Championship (Warrenpoint Town) for one place in the following season's Premiership. However, Warrenpoint Town were denied an NIFL Premiership license on 27 April 2023 and were unsuccessful in their appeal, resulting in the play-off being postponed.[5] Eventually, the third-placed club from the NIFL Championship at the time (Annagh United) elected to take Warrenpoint Town's place in the play-off.

First leg

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30 May 2023 Annagh United 2–1 Dungannon Swifts BMG Arena
19:45 BST (UTC+01) Ruddy   4' (o.g.)
Taylor   70'
Animasahun   3'

Second leg

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1 June 2023 Dungannon Swifts 2–0
(3–2 agg.)
Annagh United Stangmore Park
19:45 BST (UTC+01) McGee   13'
O'Connor   69'

Statistics

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Top goalscorers

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Rank Scorer Club Goals[6]
1   Matthew Shevlin Coleraine 23
2   Matthew Fitzpatrick Glenavon 19
3   Ronan Hale Cliftonville 18
5   Eetu Vertainen Linfield 17
  Philip Lowry Crusaders
6   Lee Bonis Larne 15
7   Ryan Curran Cliftonville 14
8   Paul O'Neill Larne 13
10   Jay Donnelly Glentoran 12
  Joel Cooper Linfield

Clean sheets

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Rank Goalkeeper Club Clean sheets[6]
1   Rohan Ferguson Larne 23
2   Chris Johns Linfield 21
3   Aaron McCarey Glentoran 17
4   Jonathan Tuffey Crusaders 14
6   Nathan Gartside Cliftonville 12
  Gareth Deane Coleraine
7   Ross Glendinning Carrick Rangers 9
8   Sean O'Neill Ballymena United 8
9   Rory Brown Glenavon 7
10   Martin Gallagher Coleraine 6

References

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  1. ^ "Larne secure historic first Irish League title". BBC Sport. BBC. 14 April 2023.
  2. ^ "AQW 1178/11". niassembly.gov.uk. 18 October 2010. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  3. ^ "Sport NI Annual review 2008/09" (PDF). sportni.net. p. 18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  4. ^ "NIFL Premiership Rules 2020–21" (PDF). NIFL. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  5. ^ "Premiership Play-Off postponed after Warrenpoint Town denied playing license by Irish FA". Belfast Telegraph. Belfast Telegraph. 27 April 2023.
  6. ^ a b "NIFL Premiership Statistics". NI Football League. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
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