Portstewart F.C.
| Full name | Portstewart Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Seahawks |
| Founded | 1968 |
| Ground | Seahaven, Portstewart |
| Manager | Gary Taylor |
| League | Northern Ireland Intermediate League |
| 2015–16 | NIFL Championship 2, 13th (relegated) |
Portstewart Football Club is an intermediate, Northern Irish football club playing in the Northern Ireland Intermediate League. The club, founded in 1968, hails from Portstewart, County Londonderry and plays its home matches at Seahaven, near the centre of the town. Club colours are sky blue and navy blue. Change strip is all white. Portstewart are nicknamed "The Seahawks". The ground and clubhouse were officially opened in 1997 by Harry Gregg MBE. Portstewart Reserves play in the Coleraine and District League.
Although there are records of teams playing under the name of Portstewart as far back as 1926, the club as we know it was formed in 1968, when a team led by Tony McKeague were invited to compete in the newly formed Castlerock and Coleraine District League. Their debut season was a successful one and after winning the afternoon section the competed for the Doherty Cup, against morning section winners Macosquin, running out 4-1 winners. The next season the club progressed into the North West League Div 2 and another successful season resulted in the team earning promotion to Div 1, as champions.
After a mid table finish to the 1st season in Div 1, the Seasiders gradually improved with a runners up spot in 1971/72, before winning the league and cup double the following season.
Portstewart took another stride forward in 1979, when they applied to join the Northern Ireland Intermediate League (NIIL). They started their campaign against Derry City and a few weeks later opened a new pavilion at The Warren, against RUC. The most defining moment in the club's history came when they appointed Frankie Moffatt, for the first of two spells, as manager in 1984. "Basher" delivered the league title in his first year in charge and followed this up with success in the NIIL Challenge Cup and NIIl League Cup before leaving to take up posts with Ballymoney United and hometown Coleraine. Portstewart then had a number of various managers unable to bring any success before Frankie Moffatt returned in 1991.
Frankie Moffatt's return once again saw the club challenging for honours going very close to claiming the league title with a number of runner up slots, once being the only club to defeat champions Donegal Celtic and most notably losing out on goals scored to the same side.
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