Limavady United

Limavady United Football Club is an intermediate, Northern Irish football club playing in the NIFL Premier Intermediate League. The club comes from Limavady, County Londonderry, and plays home matches at the Showgrounds. Club colours are royal blue shirts with white trim, blue socks and royal blue shorts. Away colours are all yellow. The current manager is Lee Guy, who took over from Mark Clyde in 2020. The club was formed in 1884 when Alexander (formed in 1880 by the Alexander Cricket Club, which itself was formed in 1878) amalgamated with another local club, Wanderers. Alexander had been a founder member of the Irish Football Association in 1880, contributing to the purchase of the original Irish Cup. Nicknamed "The Roesiders" or "The Lims", in 1885 and 1886 the club reached consecutive Irish Cup Finals, losing both to Distillery - the first 3–0 and the second 1–0. After a protest by Limavady in 1886 the result was confirmed, but medals were withheld from both teams in spite of a challenge in the High Court by a Distillery player. Between 1882 and 1888, the club provided seven internationals to the Irish national football team. The club also famously travelled to Liverpool in 1886, and defeated Everton 1–0- the first team from outside Great Britain to do so. After a long time as a junior team, the club joined the senior Irish Football League in 1997–98, and reached its first Irish Cup semi-final in over a century in 2003–04. In 2008, the club lost its senior status when it failed to gain admission to the new IFA Premiership. Since then, the club played in the IFA Championship until relegation in May 2019. In April 2013, three players received suspensions after being found guilty of breaching IFA betting rules on one of the club's league matches. The club won the NIFL Championship 2 in the 2015-2016 season but were denied promotion to NIFL Championship 1 as they were unsuccessful in applying for a licence. However they were promoted as winners of the Premier Intermediate League in 2016-2017