Co Antrim boss Gary Chisholm reveals why he'll let players set their own goals for SuperCupNI
The former Linfield title winner is happy to let the team take ownership in terms of what they hope to achieve, knowing that players go into the tournament aiming for the top.
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Belfast Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Belfast Telegraph
BelTel Football's Season Preview: ‘Coleraine must challenge Linfield for the title'
Can cash-rich Coleraine wrestle the Gibson Cup away from Windsor Park, or will David Healy guide Linfield to their 58th League title?
BBC News
14 hours ago
- BBC News
Who do Linfield and Larne face in Europe?
Although Dungannon Swifts' dreams of reaching the group stage of the Conference League were extinguished by Vaduz after extra-time, Linfield and Larne's European journey continues this Healy's Linfield won through to the third round of qualifying as goals from Matthew Fitzpatrick and Kieran Offord in the second leg at Windsor Park against Zalgiris saw them through 2-0 on held their nerve on penalties for the second time in the campaign to return to the group stage as they came through 5-4 in the shootout against Prishtina after a 1-1 draw in both clubs playing the first leg of their third-round ties on Thursday, BBC Sport NI takes a look at the opposition. Linfield travel to the Faroes Linfield will be feeling good following their 2-0 win against Zalgiris after the scoreless draw in the first leg in will seek to build upon that when they take on Vikingur Gota from the Faroe Islands in round three of qualifying, but their opposition have had their moments in European qualifying in the won a third league title in their history in 2024 to take their place in the Champions League qualifiers, but lost out to Gilbralter's Lincoln Red Imps which saw them drop into round three of the Conference League year, they beat Latvia's FK Liepaja over two legs in qualifying before bowing out against Belgium's Gent, while their best European run occurred in the 2014/15 season when beating Latvia's FC Daugava and Norway's Tromso before falling to HNK Rijeka of this season has not gone to plan as they currently sit in fourth place in the Faroe Islands Premier League, 19 points behind leaders Kl first leg takes place in Torshavn on Thursday at 19:00 BST with the return leg at Windsor Park next winner will move into a final play-off against the loser of the Europa League tie between Shelbourne and Croatia's HNK Rijeka. Larne welcome Portuguese opposition Larne have twice come through on penalties in their qualifiers with the spot-kick success against Prishtina following another shootout win against FK Rooney's side now face Portugal's CD Santa Clara, with the first leg on Thursday at the Ballymena Showgrounds (20:00 BST) before the return next club from Ponta Delgada - the largest city in the Azores Islands - does have the distinction of being the most westerly team to compete in European competition and first from the Azores, but they have so much more about them than promotion from Portugal's second division in the 2023/24 season, Santa Clara enjoyed a solid campaign in the top flight last season with a fifth-place finish securing European enjoyed a 3-2 aggregate win against Croatia's NK Varazdin to move into this third-round tie, coming back from a 2-1 deficit after the first leg as Vinicius Lopes and Gabriel Silva scored the goals to see them is not the club's first experience of European football as they made it as far as the Conference League play-off round in 2021, only to be pipped to a place in the group stage by Serbia's winners of this tie will face either Shamrock Rovers or Ballkani from Kosova for a place in the group phase.
BBC News
14 hours ago
- BBC News
Champions, old faces and European dreams - the Irish Premiership returns
The Irish Premiership season is back!It's been 90 days since the 2024/25 Irish Premiership season came to a close with Cliftonville beating Coleraine in the European play-off final in three months on, Northern Ireland's top flight is back and it has been a busy summer for all 12 Sport NI looks at some of the major talking points ahead of the 2025/26 season. Who will fight for the title? The Gibson Cup is sitting back in Windsor Park after two seasons on the Antrim coast with Healy's Linfield romped home to take the title with five games to spare as they extended their record of title wins to dominance on the pitch was even more remarkable considering it was a season that saw speculation surrounding Healy and star player Joel Cooper leaving the club throughout the manager stayed and signed a contract extension two months ago, while Cooper, last year's NI Football Writers Player of the Year, left for Blues' nearest challengers last season were 22 points behind them and the side they dethroned as champions Larne.A season of transition for the Inver Park side saw a first campaign in Europe but also the departure of Tiernan Lynch as manager in mustered a strong challenge in the second-half of the season to finish in the automatic European places at the expense of picking up the County Antrim Shield in January - their first silverware in five years - Declan Devine's side went on to miss out on BetMcLean Cup, losing to Cliftonville in the final and the Irish Cup after a quarter-final defeat against European football for them this season, but they did muster four wins over champions Linfield though, showing they are still capable of a big day have found themselves in amongst the title favourites with the bookmakers after some big moves in the transfer manager Ruaidhri Higgins has brought in eight new signings this summer including the aforementioned Cooper, Stephen Fallon, Will Patching and Kodi Lyons-Foster. New/old faces in the dugouts Talking about Coleraine, they are one of two sides with a somewhat new face in the dugouts for this Derry City manager Higgins got nestled into his new role at Coleraine ahead of their unsuccessful European play-off campaign in replaced Dean Shiels at the Showgrounds as new Bannsiders owner Henry Ross made some big changes to the set-up with Oran Kearney leaving his role as sporting director welcome back Nathan Rooney to the hotseat at Inver Park after originally announcing him as manager in November former Bruno's Magpies manager ended up moving into a director of football role for the season and replaced by Gary Haveron due to a technicality with his licencing issue was resolved in May with Englishman Rooney now enrolled on a Uefa Pro Licence course with Haveron moving back to his former role of assistant. Bangor back in the big time We said goodbye to Loughgall at the end of last season and this year we welcome back Bangor to the Irish champions of the second-tier Championship, Lee Feeney's side are back in the top flight for the first time since club have had a remarkable turnaround over the last five years with Feeney at the helm. They were down in the third tier of domestic football when the former Rangers man took over in 2020 and he led them to the Championship three years the evergreen Michael Halliday still turning out for the side at 46, Bangor won the title by five points, holding off the challenge of Annagh have opted to bring in some experienced Irish Premiership players such as Gareth Deane and Mark Haughey to boost their bid for survival. Swifts seek to replicate success The 2024/25 campaign was a dream season for Rodney McAree's Dungannon Swifts surprised everyone by surging to a fourth-place finish and followed up their impressive league form by winning the Irish Cup for the first time with a penalty shootout win against landmark success secured European qualification for the Stangmore Park side, along with all the financial rewards that accompany it, although they fell at the second qualifying round against FC Swifts have lost striker John McGovern to Shamrock Rovers, who was key to their success with 14 league goals last season and captain Dean Curry, who retired on a high following the Irish Cup who was named Manager of the Year last season, has managed to keep the rest of his squad together and has even added former Everton midfielder Sean McAllister but can they repeat their success of last year or will they drop off? European dreams After Larne's historic campaign in the Uefa Conference League last season, both them and Linfield are on the hunt for a spot in the league stage of that competition Inver Park club finished their inaugural campaign on a huge high with a 1-0 win over Belgian side Gent in their final match in December and will face Portugal's CD Santa Clara over two legs in the third round of coming within a whisker of qualifying for European competition back in 2022, Linfield are also in the mix for a spot this lost out in Champions League qualifying to League of Ireland champions Shelbourne before coming through the challenge of Zalgiris in the second round of Conference League will play Faroese side Vikingur Gøta next up, with the winners of that tie moving into the final play-off the prize on offer is lucrative for both clubs with Larne reportingly earning nearly £3m for their progression in the league stage of last year's competition.
