Ards Rangers

Ards Rangers play in the Northern Amateur Football League, and the club's most recent appearance on a bigger stage came in the 2024–25 Irish Cup. They reached the Third Round, where Queen's University beat them 0–3. Most of their football is played well away from that level.

The league has been their home since 1962. That year they were admitted from the Alliance League, which no longer exists. They have won its Premier Division three times, in 1997–98, 2011–12 and 2014–15. They also won the Border Regiment Cup in 2014–15, so the league title and the cup came in the same campaign. The cup had been theirs twice before, in 1966–67 and 1979–80.

The club has produced at least one player who went on to professional football. Ollie Webber started out as a goalkeeper in Rangers' youth set-up, then moved to Glentoran and Crystal Palace and played for Northern Ireland at youth level. Another goalkeeper, Jason Mooney, played for the club in 2009 before a career in England and at Cliftonville. That same year Lee Forsythe, then in charge, was named Young Northern Ireland Manager of the Year.

The local fixture that carries an edge is the "Portaferry Road derby" against Portaferry Rovers. It takes its name from the road the home ground stands on.

Locally the side is simply "Rangers", and nobody in Newtownards confuses it with the Scottish club. The team began in 1949, when Alex Haslett was one of those who got it started. From the first season it has played at Drome Park.