Banbridge Rangers Football CLub

Banbridge Rangers was formed from a idea from a group of friends on the way home from a Loughgall game. At first it was just talk but the more talking done the more interested people became on getting a team formed.

A decision was taken to try a get a team together and get a friendly played and see from there was there enough interest to take it forward. A friendly was arranged for March 2005 against Dromore Utd, a mid Ulster team. The match was played down in Dromore and the Banbridge team showed up for their first match with skips borrowed from Dromore Utd. Even at this early stage of Banbridge Rangers there was a large support coming to watch. The match was played and despite going 1-0 down the 'gers' went on to win 3-1 with goals from Neily Wilson and two from Peter Gilchrist.

Everyone was happy that there was enought support and interest to form a team and apply for a league for the following season. The club had decided to apply for the Mid Ulster League but the application date had past for the 2005/06 season. As a result of this applications went in to the South Antrim League and the Newcastle League, both were a

ccepted. A meeting took place and a decision was made to join the Newcastle League.

At this point the club was official but had no skips or money and alot of work had to be done to get the club ready for the up and coming season. The club formed a partnership with NA sports in Portadown who supplyed the team with training equipment, and it wasnt long till a sponsor was found for the skips. Alan McMinn of McMinn P.V.C Services came in and offered to supply the team with their skips (picture to the right).

After finishing the season of in mid table, the club again showed interest in Joining the Mid Ulster set up, and on the 1st July 2006 club Chairman Stuart Magill and Secretary Richard McMinn went to a meeting of the Mid Ulster League Committee and a week later got a letter to say we were accepted into Division 4. It took time and alot of work to get the club ready for the journey they are now on but things are on the up for the 'Gers' and lets hope that they are here for many years to come.

The club played its first game league in the Mid Ulster on the 23rd of September 06 and traveled away to Garvey Boys with a 3 - 1 win, this was a good start to the season as we carried on to win our first 6 league games in a row scoring 26 goals in the opening fixtures. The club was now on a high and we all had high hopes in finishing in the top half of the table. This soon ended when the club lost its first game playing Ambassadors at home and lost 5 - 1, This followed a 5 game unsettled period when some dout was in the minds of the players and manager but this was soon forgot about as on the 9th of December 06 we played The Dons away and came away with a 1 - 0 win. At this stage we had no idea what was going to happen and the club carried on winning the following 11 fixtures. With the league title now in our sights and also Baileys Tigers & Ambassadors the club only had to win its next fixture against Granville if Baileys Tigers lost their last game of the season but this was not meant to be as even tho Baileys lost we could only manage a 2 - 2 Draw.

This left us only having to draw our last game of the season which was away to Armagh Atheltic on the 14th of April 07. The players, manager, officials and supporters were nervious at this point and at the same time was looking forward to finishing the season.

Division 4 Winners

The club booked 2, 52 seater buses for the last game and filled both with the large support the club had and we all headed away for the game. All eyes were now on the players to do the job as we were sitting second in the table, the game started well with the Nicky Ireland scoring first in the 39th minute, Armagh were to score next but at that stage all we needed was the point to win, with a good half time talk from the manager the players went out and scored twice in the second half with goals from Colin Cousins (54) & John McCahon (80), the final whistle went and we were league champions topping the table with 56 points 2 ahead of Baileys Tigers. The club was now playing in Division 3.

The 2007/08 season will always be one to remember as the club got word our home ground was going to be redeveloped. Meetings were held with the council and were informed Cheney Park was also being redeveloped into a state of the art 3G pitch which the club was going to share with Banbridge AFC. All work was meant to be finished for the start of the season but after a number of deadlines had passed we never kicked a ball on the new surface that season, in fact we recorded 4 different home pitches which is never good for any team. The club went on to finish 5th in the league recording 12 wins, 6 draws and 8 defeats. The club held its AGM and plans were brought to the table to apply for the Intermediate league of the Mid Ulster following our move to Cheney Park, the club committee had also be informed the members were now in the club to start a reserve team, as the committee was in agreement the paper work was submitted for the club to play in the Intermediate B and Reserve Division 3 league in the 2008/09 season.

Chairman Stuart Magill, Secretary Richard McMinn and Treasurer Stephen Magill went to an interview meeting with the Mid Ulster League Committee and a week later got a letter to say we had been accepted into both leagues. Work was now underway to make sure both the first team and newly formed reserve team were ready for the season ahead. Going into the first games of the season the club aimed to find its feet playing at a higher level and hope to finish in mid table for both teams with we done, the first team finished 8th in the league while the reserve finished in 6th. This alone was a great achievement and the club was every happy with the season with the first team going through 2 managers and at times the team was unsettled. But now the season was over the coach George McCallister was hard at work already with pre-season plans and on the look out for new players.