Crumlin United
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| Full name | Crumlin United Football Club |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1968 |
| Chairman | Tom McPeake |
| Manager | Paddy Kelly |
| League | Northern Amateur Football League Premier Division |
| 2015–16 | Northern Amateur Football League Premier Division, 8th |
Crumlin United Football Club is a Northern Irish football club playing in the Premier Division of the Northern Amateur Football League. The club is based in Crumlin, County Antrim, was founded in 1968 and played in the Lisburn League, Ballymena Premier League and Dunmurry League before joining the Amateur League in 1986. In 1990, intermediate status was achieved.
Crumlin United have several youth teams who play in the South Belfast Youth League.
Crumlin United was founded by John Henry, Jimmy Wilson and Billy Friars in 1967 when they entered their first team in the Lisburn League Second Division under the name of Ulster Woolen Mills. The aforementioned company provided the team with a pitch for the season which was most welcome. Unfortunately, the closure of UWM the following year saw the team disband, only to resurrect itself in June 1968 in the Crumlin British Legion Hall, this time as Crumlin United.
With Jim Wilson as Chairman, and the team now donning a new kit purchased with a loan of £25 from the generous Gerry Mallon, they re-entered the Lisburn League. One of the stars of the 1968–69 season was young Jimmy Kelly who made his debut aged just 13, and who went on to play for Cliftonville and Glentoran and later the English club Wolverhampton Wanderers. Thanks to the efforts of young Jimmy and his teammates, the newly formed Crumlin United won promotion in their first season.
The success of the 1968–69 season was followed by a period of consolidation and not much in the way of trophies, but as the team matured success wasn't far away and in 1973–74 the young men had came of age and won the Division II title after an end-of-season play-off against Ford's at Wallace Park under manager Billy McCleary (ex-Cliftonville). Of the many highlights of that season, perhaps the most notable was the goal-scoring prowess of Gerry Kelly who notched up an incredible 71 goals in all competitions.
Crumlin Utd played their home games at Crumlin War Memorial Park and, after a period of 10 years, they moved to the Ballymena Junior League, where between the 1980–81 and 1984–85 seasons they never finished any lower than 6th and were beaten finalists in no less than 6 cup competitions.
In 1980, Crumlin Utd. acquired their own Social Club and the revenue this brought in enabled them to purchase a six and a half acre site at Mill Road for the sum of £9,000. They became known under their current title "Crumlin United Football & Social Club" around this time.
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