2003–04 Irish Premier League

Irish Premier League
Season	2003–04
Champions	Linfield; 45th Irish title
Relegated	Glenavon
UEFA Champions League	Linfield
UEFA Cup	Portadown; Glentoran
UEFA Intertoto Cup	Ballymena United
Matches played	240
	← 2002–03 2004–05 →

Belfast

Belfast teams : Cliftonville
Crusaders
Glentoran
Linfield

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Location of teams in the 2003–04 Irish Premier League

2003–04 Irish Premier League is located in Greater Belfast

Location of the Belfast-based teams in the 2003–04 Irish Premier League

The 2003–04 Irish Premier League was the 103rd edition of the Irish League, the highest level of league competition in Northern Irish football. For this season there was a change from the structure of previous seasons, with the First Division reverting to intermediate status and the new Premier Division being renamed as the Irish Premier League. The league consisted of 16 teams, and Linfield won the championship.

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Linfield (C)	30	22	7	1	67	16	+51	73	Qualification to Champions League first qualifying round
2	Portadown	30	22	4	4	71	22	+49	70	Qualification to UEFA Cup first qualifying round
3	Lisburn Distillery	30	16	7	7	45	30	+15	55
4	Coleraine	30	14	9	7	48	36	+12	51
5	Glentoran	30	15	5	10	48	27	+21	50	Qualification to UEFA Cup first qualifying round^[a]
6	Ballymena United	30	13	8	9	41	35	+6	47	Qualification to Intertoto Cup first round
7	Limavady United	30	12	5	13	41	44	−3	41
8	Ards	30	9	11	10	36	46	−10	38
9	Crusaders	30	10	6	14	33	38	−5	36
10	Dungannon Swifts	30	10	6	14	36	48	−12	36
11	Institute	30	9	7	14	38	53	−15	34
12	Newry Town	30	8	9	13	35	53	−18	33
13	Omagh Town	30	9	4	17	37	58	−21	31
14	Larne	30	7	8	15	42	51	−9	29
15	Cliftonville	30	6	8	16	27	45	−18	26	Qualification to Promotion/relegation play-off
16	Glenavon (R)	30	4	4	22	24	67	−43	16	Relegation to Irish First Division

Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored; 4th head-to-head points; 5th head-to-head goal difference
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ As Irish Cup winners

Results

Each team played every other team twice (home and away) for a total of 30 games.

Home \ Away	ARD	BYM	CLI	COL	CRU	DUN	GLV	GLT	INS	LRN	LIM	LIN	LIS	NEW	OMA	POR
Ards		1–1	0–0	2–2	2–0	0–2	2–4	2–1	2–2	1–1	0–0	0–4	1–1	4–0	2–1	2–1
Ballymena United	1–0		0–1	3–1	1–1	1–0	4–0	0–0	2–1	1–1	0–3	0–0	1–4	4–0	3–1	1–4
Cliftonville	2–1	0–3		2–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–2	0–0	3–2	1–4	0–0	1–2	1–2	0–1
Coleraine	4–1	4–0	1–0		0–1	3–1	2–1	0–1	4–2	0–4	2–1	2–0	0–0	4–3	0–0	3–1
Crusaders	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–1		0–1	0–4	0–1	3–1	3–2	2–0	1–3	0–1	2–2	4–1	1–2
Dungannon Swifts	2–2	0–0	2–2	3–2	2–1		3–1	1–4	1–1	2–5	1–2	0–4	2–0	3–0	1–0	1–2
Glenavon	1–2	0–3	1–1	0–0	2–1	2–2		1–2	0–2	0–4	2–3	0–2	2–2	0–2	0–3	0–3
Glentoran	3–0	3–1	1–1	0–1	0–1^[a]	1–0	4–0		1–0	1–0	2–1	1–3	0–1^[a]	4–0	4–0	1–2
Institute	0–1	0–4	2–1	2–2	1–3	1–0	1–0	3–1		4–1	0–4	0–0	0–2	1–1	1–1	0–3
Larne	5–1	1–2	2–1	0–2	0–0	0–2	1–0	1–4	2–4		2–1	0–3	0–2	3–3	1–2	2–4
Limavady United	0–1	0–1	3–1	3–3	2–3	3–1	2–0	1–0^[a]	2–1	0–0		0–2	0–3	1–0	3–2	0–6
Linfield	2–2	4–1	1–0	0–0	1–0	2–0	3–1	2–1	6–0	1–0	3–2		3–0	5–0	2–0	0–0
Lisburn Distillery	1–0	2–1	2–1	1–1	2–1	2–0	5–0	1–1	3–2	1–0	0–1	1–1		3–2	1–2	1–0
Newry Town	0–0	1–1	3–1	0–1	2–1	0–0	4–0	0–0	2–1	3–3	1–1	1–2	1–0		1–0	1–2
Omagh Town	1–4	2–0	2–3	1–1	0–3	1–3	2–1	1–4	0–3	0–0	2–0	1–3	3–2	3–0		2–5
Portadown	4–0	0–1	5–1	2–1	4–0	5–0	2–0	2–1	0–0	3–1	0–0	1–1	4–1	2–0	1–0

Source: Irish League Archive
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

^ ^a ^b ^c The first three games of the season by Glentoran were subsequently rated 0–1 for the respective opponents. Glentoran had used an ineligible player.

Promotion/relegation play-off

Cliftonville, the club that finished in the relegation play-off place, faced Armagh City, the runners-up of the 2003–04 Irish First Division in a two-legged tie for a place in next season's Irish Premier League.

4 May 2004

Armagh City	0 – 3	Cliftonville

Holm Park, Armagh

7 May 2004

Cliftonville	1 – 1	Armagh City

Solitude, Belfast

Cliftonville won 4–1 on aggregate

References

Northern Ireland - List of final tables (RSSSF)

[table_note_res_UC1a0.8064586528607-1] As Irish Cup winners

[table_note_1_GLT_LIS0.11463300609711-2] The first three games of the season by Glentoran were subsequently rated 0–1 for the respective opponents. Glentoran had used an ineligible player.

[a]

[a]

v t e NIFL Premiership seasons
Irish League	1890–91 1891–92 1892–93 1893–94 1894–95 1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–00 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03
Irish Premier League	2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08
IFA Premiership	2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13
NIFL Premiership	2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Belfast & District League (wartime)	1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19
Northern Regional League (wartime)	1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47

v t e 2003–04 in Northern Irish football
Domestic leagues	Irish Premier League Irish First Division
Domestic cups	Irish Cup Irish League Cup County Antrim Shield
European competitions	UEFA Champions League UEFA Cup UEFA Intertoto Cup
Related to national team	UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying (Group 6)

v t e 2003–04 in European men's football (UEFA)
Domestic leagues	Albania Andorra Armenia '03 '04 Austria Azerbaijan Belarus '03 '04 Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia '03 '04 Faroe Islands '03 '04 Finland '03 '04 France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '03 '04 Israel Italy Kazakhstan '03 '04 Latvia '03 '04 Lithuania '03 '04 Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '03 '04 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland '03 '04 Romania Russia '03 '04 San Marino Scotland Serbia and Montenegro Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden '03 '04 Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales
Domestic cups	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia Faroe Islands '03 '04 Finland '03 '04 France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '03 '04 Israel Italy Kazakhstan '03 '04 Latvia '03 '04 Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '03 '04 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland '03 '04 Romania Russia San Marino Scotland Serbia and Montenegro Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden '03 '04 Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales
League cups	England Finland '03 '04 France Germany Iceland '03 '04 Israel Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland '03 '04 Scotland Wales
UEFA competitions	Champions League (Qualifying rounds, Group stage, Knockout stage, Final) UEFA Cup (qualifying, 1st round, 2nd round, final phase, final) Intertoto Cup Super Cup