2022–23 NIFL Premiership

NIFL Premiership

Season	2022–23
Dates	12 Aug 2022 – 29 Apr 2023
Champions	Larne
Relegated	Portadown
UEFA Champions League	Larne
UEFA Europa Conference League	Linfield Crusaders
Matches played	57
Goals scored	176 (3.09 per match)
Biggest home win	Linfield 7-0 Newry City (18 March 2023)
Biggest away win	Portadown 1–6 Linfield (28 January 2023)
Highest scoring	Carrick Rangers 4–3 Crusaders (1 October 2022)
Highest attendance	7,134 Linfield 0–3 Glentoran (14 October 2022)
Lowest attendance	274 Carrick Rangers 3–0 Dungannon Swifts (15 October 2022)
← 2021–22 2023–24 → All statistics correct as of 11 March 2023.

The 2022–23 NIFL Irish Premiership (known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th season of the NIFL Premiership, the highest level of league football in Northern Ireland, the 122nd season of Irish league football overall, and the 10th season of the league operating as part of the Northern Ireland Football League.

Larne were champions, winning the league for the 1st time.

Summary

The 38-game season commenced on 12 August 2022 and concluded on 29 April 2023.

Linfield were the four-time defending champions, having been league winners in the previous four seasons - the 2021–22 season seeing them win a world record 56th league crown.

Larne became the champions and entered the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League first qualifying round, clinching their first league title on 14 April 2023 with a 2–0 win over Crusaders. The runners-up (Linfield), the Irish Cup winners (Crusaders), and the play-off winners will enter the 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League first qualifying round.

Teams

Belfast

Ballymena United

Coleraine

Dungannon Swifts

Glenavon

Portadown

Larne

Carrick Rangers

Newry City

Belfast teams : Cliftonville
Crusaders
Glentoran
Linfield

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Locations of the 2022–23 NIFL Irish Premiership teams

Cliftonville

Crusaders

Glentoran

Linfield

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Locations of the Belfast-based 2022–23 NIFL Irish Premiership teams

Twelve teams will compete in this season's Premiership, eleven of which return from the previous season. Warrenpoint Town finished bottom of the table the previous season, and were relegated to the NIFL Championship after five years as a Premiership club, with Championship winners Newry City promoted to replace them for this season's Premiership. 11th-placed Portadown retained their Premiership status after defeating Annagh United 4–2 on aggregate in the Premiership play-off.

Stadia and locations

Club	Stadium	Location	Capacity
Ballymena United	The Showgrounds	Ballymena	3,824 (all seated)
Carrick Rangers	Loughshore Hotel Arena	Carrickfergus	2,100 (380 seated)
Cliftonville	Solitude	Belfast	3,054 (all seated)
Coleraine	The Showgrounds	Coleraine	4,843 (1,607 seated)
Crusaders	Seaview	Belfast	3,208 (all seated)
Dungannon Swifts	Stangmore Park	Dungannon	2,000 (300 seated)
Glenavon	Mourneview Park	Lurgan	3,302 (all seated)
Glentoran	The Oval	Belfast	6,054 (3,991 seated)
Larne	Inver Park	Larne	2,732 (1,632 seated)
Linfield	Windsor Park	Belfast	18,434 (all seated)
Newry City	The Showgrounds	Newry	2,275 (1,080 seated)
Portadown	Shamrock Park	Portadown	3,940 (2,765 seated)

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Larne (C)	38	25	8	5	64	22	+42	83	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Linfield	38	23	8	7	75	27	+48	77	Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round
3	Glentoran (Q)	38	23	5	10	77	28	+49	74	Qualification for the Europa Conference League play-offs
4	Cliftonville (Q)	38	20	8	10	66	53	+13	68
5	Crusaders	38	19	10	9	72	45	+27	67	Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round
6	Coleraine (Q)	38	18	8	12	59	39	+20	62	Qualification for the Europa Conference League play-offs
7	Glenavon (Q)	38	14	10	14	58	61	−3	52	Qualification for the Europa Conference League play-offs
8	Carrick Rangers	38	12	4	22	45	74	−29	40
9	Ballymena United	38	11	6	21	37	55	−18	39
10	Newry City	38	9	3	26	37	71	−34	30
11	Dungannon Swifts (Q)	38	9	3	26	28	84	−56	30	Qualification for the NIFL Premiership play-off
12	Portadown (R)	38	6	5	27	29	88	−59	23	Relegation to the NIFL Championship

Source: Northern Ireland Football League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Drawing of lots
(C) Champions; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated; (R) Relegated
Notes:

Results

Matches 1–22

During matches 1–22 each team plays every other team twice (home and away).

Home \ Away	BYM	CRK	CLF	COL	CRU	DUN	GLA	GLT	LAR	LIN	NEW	POR
Ballymena United	—	0–1	1–2	2–1	0–0	2–0	2–2	2–0	0–3	0–4	3–0	2–0
Carrick Rangers	0–2	—	3–3	2–4	4–3	3–0	1–1	1–5	0–1	2–1	2–1	2–0
Cliftonville	4–0	3–2	—	2–2	0–0	4–2	2–2	1–0	2–1	1–0	4–0	4–1
Coleraine	2–0	1–0	3–1	—	1–2	2–0	1–3	0–0	0–0	0–0	2–0	4–0
Crusaders	3–0	3–0	3–0	2–0	—	5–1	3–2	3–2	1–1	2–1	4–0	2–1
Dungannon Swifts	0–2	4–1	0–2	0–5	0–2	—	1–0	0–1	0–3	0–1	2–0	2–0
Glenavon	3–2	2–2	0–1	0–0	4–2	5–0	—	2–1	1–2	1–6	1–5	2–1
Glentoran	1–0	5–0	0–1	1–0	3–1	3–1	0–0	—	4–0	1–2	3–0	5–1
Larne	3–0	0–0	4–0	2–0	4–1	4–0	3–0	0–0	—	0–0	2–0	2–0
Linfield	3–0	3–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	4–0	3–2	0–3	2–4	—	7–0	4–0
Newry City	3–2	4–1	1–2	1–2	1–2	1–0	0–1	0–1	0–2	0–2	—	3–0
Portadown	1–0	1–3	1–2	0–2	2–2	0–0	1–1	0–3	0–1	0–3	1–3	—

Source: Northern Ireland Football League, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.
Notes:

Matches 23–33

During matches 23–33 each team plays every other team for the third time (either at home or away).

Home \ Away	BYM	CRK	CLF	COL	CRU	DUN	GLA	GLT	LAR	LIN	NEW	POR
Ballymena United	—	—	4–1	—	—	—	0–1	1–3	—	0–2	0–0	0–0
Carrick Rangers	1–0	—	—	0–1	0–3	—	—	0–4	2–3	—	—	2–0
Cliftonville	—	1–0	—	—	—	1–2	—	2–1	—	—	2–0	3–0
Coleraine	3–1	—	2–4	—	2–0	—	—	2–2	—	—	1–0	4–1
Crusaders	0–1	—	2–2	—	—	3–0	—	—	—	2–0	3–1	4–0
Dungannon Swifts	1–1	0–1	—	0–3	—	—	2–1	—	—	0–5	—	—
Glenavon	—	4–2	1–3	2–1	2–2	—	—	—	0–1	—	0–2	—
Glentoran	—	—	—	—	2–0	6–0	0–2	—	0–1	3–0	—	—
Larne	1–0	—	2–1	0–2	0–0	2–1	—	—	—	—	—	—
Linfield	—	2–0	1–0	2–0	—	—	2–1	—	1–0	—	—	—
Newry City	—	0–2	—	—	—	0–2	—	1–3	0–0	1–3	—	3–4
Portadown	—	—	—	—	—	3–1	3–1	0–2	0–5	1–6	—	—

Source: Northern Ireland Football League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Matches 34–38

For the final five matches, the table splits into two halves, with the top six teams forming Section A and the bottom six teams forming Section B. Each team plays every other team in their respective section once. The fixtures are reversed from those played during rounds 23–33, ensuring that teams have played every other team in their respective section twice at home and twice away overall throughout the season.

Section A

Home \ Away	CLF	COL	CRU	GLT	LAR	LIN
Cliftonville	—	2–2	3–3	—	0–2	0–2
Coleraine	—	—	—	—	3–0	0–1
Crusaders	—	3–1	—	1–2	0–2	—
Glentoran	3–0	3–0	—	—	—	—
Larne	—	—	—	2–0	—	1–1
Linfield	—	—	0–0	1–1	—	—

Source: Northern Ireland Football League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Section B

Home \ Away	BYM	CRK	DUN	GLA	NEW	POR
Ballymena United	—	1–0	2–0	—	—	—
Carrick Rangers	—	—	2–0	1–3	0–2	—
Dungannon Swifts	—	—	—	—	2–1	3–2
Glenavon	3–2	—	1–1	—	—	0–0
Newry City	2–2	—	—	0–1	—	—
Portadown	1–0	3–1	—	—	0–1	—

Source: Northern Ireland Football League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Play-offs

UEFA Europa Conference League play-offs

Four or five of the clubs that finish in 3rd–7th place will compete for one place in the 2023–24 Europa Conference League first qualifying round. The play-offs are one-off matches with extra time and penalties used to determine the winner if necessary, with the higher-ranked teams given home advantage against the lower-ranked teams (i.e. 3rd v. 7th and 5th v. 6th) in the semi-finals. The higher-ranked of the two semi-final winners will also have home advantage in the final.

NIFL Premiership play-off

The eleventh-placed club (Dungannon Swifts) were expected to face the second-placed club from the 2022–23 NIFL Championship (Warrenpoint Town) for one place in the following season's Premiership. However, Warrenpoint Town were denied an NIFL Premiership license on 27 April 2023. If unsucessful in their appeal, they will be replaced by the third-placed club from the NIFL Championship (Annagh United).

External links

• Official website