2005–06 Irish Premier League

Irish Premier League
Season	2005–06
Champions	Linfield; 46th Irish title
Relegated	Institute; Ards
UEFA Champions League	Linfield
UEFA Cup	Glentoran; Portadown
UEFA Intertoto Cup	Dungannon Swifts
Matches played	240
	← 2004–05 2006–07 →

The 2005–06 Irish Premier League was the 105th edition of the Irish League, the highest level of league competition in Northern Irish football, and the 3rd edition in its current format (as the Irish Premier League) since its inception in 2003. The league consisted of 16 teams, and Linfield won the championship.

Summary

Ards were relegated after finishing bottom of the table, and Institute were relegated after a 3-1 defeat on aggregate to Donegal Celtic in the promotion play-off.

Belfast

Belfast teams : Cliftonville
Glentoran
Linfield

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Location of teams in the 2005–06 Irish Premier League

2005–06 Irish Premier League is located in Greater Belfast

Location of the Belfast-based teams in the 2005–06 Irish Premier League

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Linfield (C)	30	23	6	1	88	23	+65	75	Qualification to Champions League first qualifying round
2	Glentoran	30	19	6	5	60	28	+32	63	Qualification to UEFA Cup first qualifying round
3	Portadown	30	16	6	8	56	36	+20	54	Qualification to UEFA Cup first qualifying round
4	Dungannon Swifts	30	13	10	7	61	41	+20	49	Qualification to Intertoto Cup first round
5	Cliftonville	30	13	8	9	45	35	+10	47
6	Newry City	30	12	9	9	45	35	+10	45
7	Ballymena United	30	13	6	11	42	48	−6	45
8	Lisburn Distillery	30	12	8	10	44	38	+6	44
9	Coleraine	30	11	4	15	40	57	−17	37
10	Limavady United	30	9	9	12	42	49	−7	36
11	Loughgall	30	9	7	14	33	38	−5	34
12	Larne	30	7	9	14	42	63	−21	30
13	Glenavon	30	7	9	14	35	59	−24	30
14	Armagh City	30	9	3	18	38	69	−31	30
15	Institute (R)	30	6	8	16	37	58	−21	26	Qualification to Promotion/relegation play-off
16	Ards (R)	30	6	2	22	31	62	−31	20	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

Results

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

Home \ Away	ARD	ARM	BYM	CLI	COL	DUN	GLA	GLT	INS	LRN	LIM	LIN	LIS	LOU	NEW	POR
Ards		0–2	1–3	0–1	2–5	3–3	1–0^[a]	0–1	1–4	1–3	2–1	0–4	0–1	1–0	1–3	1–2
Armagh City	3–0		0–1	1–3	3–0	0–0	0–4	5–2	1–2	1–2	3–3	0–1	1–6	0–1	2–1	2–2
Ballymena United	1–1	3–0		0–2	1–0	4–3	2–3	0–4	1–0	1–0	1–3	0–2	1–0	3–2	0–0	2–3
Cliftonville	0–1	8–1	2–2		0–1	0–3	2–1	1–1	2–0	2–2	0–1	1–1	2–1	1–0	0–0	0–2
Coleraine	2–4	4–0	0–1	0–2		2–0	0–0	0–0	2–5	2–1	0–2	0–1	1–0	1–3	1–3	1–1
Dungannon Swifts	4–2	2–1	2–2	1–0	6–1		6–0	2–1	2–1	3–0	3–2	2–3	2–2	3–0	1–1	0–1
Glenavon	1–0	1–3	2–2	2–2	1–2	2–2		0–3	0–0	2–3	2–1	0–5	2–2	0–4	1–4	0–1
Glentoran	2–1	2–0	1–2	0–0	3–0	3–1	1–0		3–1	5–1	0–1	1–4	0–0	1–0	3–2	5–1
Institute	2–1	4–0	0–1	2–3	0–1	3–3	1–2	1–3		1–1	1–1	2–9	0–2	0–0	0–0	1–2
Larne	3–1	2–3	1–2	2–4	1–4	1–0	2–2	1–3	1–1		2–3	2–4	3–1	0–0	1–1	2–1
Limavady United	1–0	3–0	2–2	1–2	3–3	1–1	1–1	0–2	3–3	1–0		2–2	1–1	0–1	1–4	0–2
Linfield	2–0	5–0	3–2	1–0	7–2	1–1	2–1	0–0	2–0	8–1	2–0		1–3	2–0	3–1	4–0
Lisburn Distillery	1–0	3–1	2–1	0–0	1–2	0–0	1–2	1–4	4–1	3–1	1–2	0–6		2–3	0–0	1–0
Loughgall	2–3	2–1	1–0	2–3	2–3	0–1	1–1	2–3	2–0	1–1	2–1	1–2	0–0		0–3	0–0
Newry City	2–1	1–2	2–0	3–1	2–0	2–1	1–2	1–3	5–0	0–0	1–0	1–1	0–3	0–0		0–2
Portadown	3–2	1–2	6–1	3–1	2–0	2–3	4–0	0–0	0–1	2–2	5–1	0–0	1–2	2–1	5–1

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

^ The match between Ards and Glenavon (originally finished 0–3) was rated 1–0 due to the use of a player who was not eligible to play.

Promotion/relegation play-off

Institute, the club that finished in the relegation play-off place, faced Donegal Celtic, the runners-up of the 2005–06 Irish First Division in a two-legged tie for a place in next season's Irish Premier League.

5 May 2006

Donegal Celtic	3 – 1	Institute

Solitude, Belfast

10 May 2006

Institute	0 – 0	Donegal Celtic

Riverside Stadium, Derry

Donegal Celtic won 3–1 on aggregate and were promoted, Institute were relegated.

References

Northern Ireland - List of final tables (RSSSF)

[table_note_1_ARD_GLA0.70418015015506-1] The match between Ards and Glenavon (originally finished 0–3) was rated 1–0 due to the use of a player who was not eligible to play.

[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 2005–06 in Northern Irish football
Domestic leagues	Irish Premier League Irish First Division
Domestic cups	Irish Cup Irish League Cup County Antrim Shield
All-Ireland competitions	Setanta Sports Cup
European competitions	UEFA Champions League UEFA Cup UEFA Intertoto Cup
Related to national team	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (Group 6)

v t e 2005–06 in European men's football (UEFA)
Domestic leagues	Albania Andorra Armenia '05 '06 Austria Azerbaijan Belarus '05 '06 Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia '05 '06 Faroe Islands '05 '06 Finland '05 '06 France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '05 '06 Israel Italy Kazakhstan '05 '06 Latvia '05 '06 Lithuania '05 '06 Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '05 '06 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland '05 '06 Romania Russia '05 '06 San Marino Scotland Serbia and Montenegro Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden '05 '06 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 '05 '06 Finland '05 '06 France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '05 '06 Israel Italy Kazakhstan '05 '06 Latvia '05 '06 Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '05 '06 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland '05 '06 Romania Russia San Marino Scotland Serbia and Montenegro Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden '05 '06 Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales
League cups	England Finland '05 '06 France Germany Iceland '05 '06 Israel Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland '05 '06 Scotland Wales
UEFA competitions	Champions League (Qualifying rounds, Group stage, Knockout stage, Final) UEFA Cup (Qualifying, First round, Group stage, Knockout stage, Final) Intertoto Cup Super Cup