2002–03 Irish League

Irish 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)

Irish Premier Division
Season	2002–2003
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 Irish League in season 2002–03 comprised two divisions, one of 12 teams and one of 8, and Glentoran won the championship.

Premier Division[]

Belfast

Ards

Coleraine

Glenavon

Institute

Lisburn Distillery

Newry Town

Omagh Town

Portadown

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

Cliftonville

Crusaders

Glentoran

Linfield

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

League standings[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GR	Pts	Qualification
1	Glentoran (C)	38	28	6	4	78	22	3.545	90	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Portadown	38	24	8	6	89	36	2.472	80	Qualification for the UEFA Cup qualifying round
3	Coleraine	38	21	10	7	66	38	1.737	73	Qualification for the UEFA Cup qualifying round
4	Linfield	38	17	12	9	70	41	1.707	63
5	Omagh Town	38	15	6	17	47	57	0.825	51	Qualification for the Intertoto Cup first round
6	Institute	38	12	6	20	44	75	0.587	42

7	Ards	38	12	10	16	27	39	0.692	46
8	Lisburn Distillery	38	12	6	20	39	49	0.796	42
9	Cliftonville	38	9	14	15	37	43	0.860	41
10	Glenavon	38	8	12	18	41	67	0.612	36
11	Crusaders	38	9	9	20	26	61	0.426	36
12	Newry Town	38	8	7	23	33	69	0.478	31	Qualification for the promotion/relegation play-off

Source: rsssf.com
(C) Champion

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

First Division[]

Armagh City

Ballyclare Comrades

Ballymena United

Bangor

Carrick

Dungannon Swifts

Larne

Limavady United

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

League standings[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GR	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Dungannon Swifts (C, P)	28	18	6	4	61	32	1.906	60	Promotion to the Irish Premier League
2	Ballymena United (P)	28	16	6	6	71	40	1.775	54
3	Limavady United (P)	28	15	5	8	53	37	1.432	50
4	Larne (P)	28	13	4	11	35	30	1.167	43
5	Bangor (R)	28	12	5	11	40	39	1.026	41	Qualification for the promotion/relegation play-off
6	Carrick Rangers (R)	28	8	4	16	44	76	0.579	28	Relegation to the Intermediate League First Division
7	Ballyclare Comrades (R)	28	6	4	18	36	65	0.554	22
8	Armagh City (R)	28	4	6	18	37	58	0.638	18

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

References[]

Northern Ireland - List of final tables (RSSSF)

v t 2002–03 in European 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 Armenia Austria Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Faroe Islands Finland '02 '03 France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '02 '03 Israel Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Macedonia Moldova Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '02 '03 Portugal Romania Scotland Serbia and Montenegro Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden '02 '03 Turkey Ukraine
League cups	England Finland Germany Iceland '02 '03 Israel Northern Ireland Scotland
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