Queen's Island F.C.

Queen's Island
Full name	Queen's Island Football Club
Nickname(s)	the Islanders
Founded	1920
Dissolved	1929
Ground	Pirrie Park, 1923-24 and 1928-29; The Oval, 1924-28
League	Irish League
	Home colours
	Home colours

Queen's Island Football Club was a football club from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The team were champions of the Irish League in the 1923–24 season and also winners of the Irish Cup the same season.

History

Queen's Island Football Club was formed in the summer of 1920, their first match was a friendly against Ulster Rangers, they were elected to the Intermediate League for the start of the 1920/21 season, they finished 5th place in the Intermediate League whilst winning the Intermediate Cup at their first attempt, defeating Forth River 2–0 in the final at Solitude on St Patrick's Day 1921.

After their debut season in the Irish Intermediate League, Queen's Island applied to join the Irish League, Willowfield and Belfast United also applied but Queen's Island were elected. At the end of the 1928/29 season, they were voted out of the Irish League, being replaced by Derry City. Although they only spent eight seasons in senior football, Queen's Island's record of one championship and three runners-up spots was very impressive. In the 1928–29 season they conceded a record 130 goals in 26 games.

They went on to compete in junior leagues such as the Irish Football Alliance and would compete up to the 1960s, during their time in the Alliance league they played matches at Skegoneill avenue, home of Brantwood.^{[citation needed]}

Irish Football Alliance

After the club's days in the Irish Football League the club plied their trade in the Irish Football Alliance.

Colours

The club played in narrow blue and white hoops.^[3]^[4]

Ground

During their days as an Irish League side Queen's Island called two venues "home":

The Oval (shared with Glentoran) 1920-23
Pirrie Park 1923-24 to 1928-29

Irish League record

Season	Pos	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	+/-	Pts
1921–22	5	10	3	2	5	9	16	- 7	8
1922–23	2	10	5	2	3	17	21	- 4	12
1923–24	1	18	12	4	2	48	18	+30	26*
1924–25	2	22	13	6	3	48	23	+25	32
1925–26	6	22	9	5	8	42	37	+ 5	23
1926–27	2	22	12	6	4	46	34	+12	30
1927–28	12	26	5	7	14	46	70	-24	17
1928–29	14	26	2	3	21	53	130	-77	7**

*Deducted 2 points.
**Finished bottom. Not re-elected for following season.^[5]

Honours

Senior honours

Irish League: 1
- 1923–24
Irish Cup: 1
- 1923–24
County Antrim Shield: 1
- 1923–24
City Cup: 3
- 1922–23, 1923–24, 1924–25

Intermediate honours

Irish Intermediate Cup: 1
- 1920–21

Representative players

Five Queen's Island players won Ireland caps (one each):

Tom Cowan, Tucker Croft, Joe Gowdy, Bert Mehaffy and John Gough.^[6]

The following Queen's Island players represented the Irish League at inter-league level:

Armstrong, Blair, Chambers, Croft, Fergie, Gough, Gowdy, Gray, Holmes, McKeown, McLeod, Mehaffy, Scott and Wilson.

External links

Queen's Island at The Irish Football Club Project

References

^ "Last-moment thrills in the Pirrie Park match". Ireland's Saturday Night: 3. 11 April 1925.
^ Ireland's Saturday Night, 21 August 1920
^ "Last-moment thrills in the Pirrie Park match". Ireland's Saturday Night: 3. 11 April 1925.
^ "Ο "θρύλος" της Queen's Island Football Club". EYAΠ. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
^ "Football In Northern Ireland - A Statistical Record 1881-2005" Alex Graham
^ Northern Ireland's Footballing Greats

[1] "Last-moment thrills in the Pirrie Park match". Ireland's Saturday Night: 3. 11 April 1925.

[2] Ireland's Saturday Night, 21 August 1920

[3] "Last-moment thrills in the Pirrie Park match". Ireland's Saturday Night: 3. 11 April 1925.

[4] "Ο "θρύλος" της Queen's Island Football Club". EYAΠ. Retrieved 29 October 2023.

[5] "Football In Northern Ireland - A Statistical Record 1881-2005" Alex Graham

[6] Northern Ireland's Footballing Greats

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