Ards

Clandeboye Park sits in Bangor, not Newtownards — home turf borrowed rather than owned. Ards have rented pitches from neighbouring clubs since 1998, when a debt of roughly £500,000 forced the sale of Castlereagh Park, the ground the club had played on for decades; it was demolished in 2002. The current arrangement holds around 2,000, with 500 seated.

The club traces back to the autumn of 1900, formed by workers at the Webb's Weaving Company in Newtownards. Red & Blue Army is the nickname now attached to the red-and-blue stripes. The one league championship on record dates to 1957/58, which sent Ards into the European Cup against Reims. The fuller haul came in 1973/74: the Irish Cup, the Gold Cup, the Ulster Cup and the Blaxnit Cup, all in the same season, plus a UEFA Cup win over Standard Liège. Two promotions to the Irish Premiership followed, in 2013 and 2016, and both times Ards went straight back down to the Championship.

Bangor FC are the old enemy, and the North Down derby carries an extra edge: when Ards are drawn at home, they play it at Clandeboye Park — Bangor's own ground.