History
The club was formed in north Belfast as Jubilee Olympic Football Club in 1979 and joined the Dunmurry League in 1980. The club changed its name to Newington Youth Club in 1986, won its first trophy – the Breen Cup – in 1987, became the dominant team in the Dunmurry League for the next few seasons, and in 1990–91 became the first Dunmurry League team to win the County Antrim Junior Shield.
The club joined the Northern Amateur League in 1994, entering in Division 2C, and winning five trophies, including the 2C championship in their first season. Next season saw them win Division 2B to gain promotion to the top junior division of the Amateur League.
The greatest achievement in junior football came on 1 May 1997 when the club won the Irish Junior Cup – the biggest prize in junior football – defeating Fermanagh team Lisbellaw United in the final. A Division 2A title followed and soon the club was elevated to intermediate status, gaining a place in Division 1B in 2000, which it won in its first season, followed by the Division 1A title in 2001–02. Newington's facilities at its Antrim ground, Muckamore Park, however, did not meet the required standards to gain promotion to the Amateur League Premier Division.
In 2004–05, Newington reached the quarter-finals of the Steel & Sons Cup, which qualified them for their first senior competition: the County Antrim Shield; and their first match against senior opposition: a 0–2 defeat at Lisburn Distillery. At the end of the season, the club finished runners-up in Division 1A, but recent improvements to Muckamore Park meant that this time promotion to the Premier Division was achieved. In 2005–06, only eleven years after joining the League in its lowest division, Newington won the Amateur League title and the Border Cup at the first time of asking. This season also saw the club reach the quarter-finals of the Irish Cup, where they lost out to Larne. In 2007–08, the club reached the semi-finals of the Irish Intermediate Cup, and in 2008–09 won the Amateur League title for the second time.
On 14 January 2012 the club managed what the BBC described as "one of the biggest shocks in Irish Cup history" when they defeated Glentoran 1–0 in the fifth round at the east Belfast giants' own ground, The Oval. Rated 20-1 by bookmakers to win the match, the club triumphed through Neil Quinn's goal and were drawn to face Dungannon Swifts in the sixth round.
On 24 May 2013, in one of the biggest matches in the club's history, they achieved promotion to IFA Championship 2 for the first time, the third tier of national football. They faced Mid-Ulster Football League champions Dollingstown in a two-legged play-off for promotion, and won the tie on the away goals rule after it finished 4–4 on aggregate. A 3–2 away defeat followed by a 2–1 home win was enough to seal promotion.
Read more about this topic: Newington Youth Club F.C.
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... that there is no other way,
That the history of creation proceeds according to
Stringent laws, and that things
Do get done in this way, but never the things
We set out to accomplish and wanted so desperately
To see come into being.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)