Magherafelt Sky Blues Football Club are an amateur

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club from

Magherafelt Magherafelt ( ; , ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 9,071 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census. It is the biggest town in the south of the county an ...

County Londonderry County Londonderry (Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry (), is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty-two Counties of Ireland, count ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. The club, founded in 1970, plays its home matches at Spires Park. Club colours are sky blue and navy. The current manager is Brian Taylor and Sean Monaghan. The club played in the

Ballymena & Provincial Intermediate League The Ballymena and Provincial Football League is a regional association football, football league in Northern Ireland. The league has a Premier Division with Northern Ireland football league system#Intermediate, intermediate status and three Nort ...

until announcing their resignation from the league on the eve of the 2017–18 season. They now compete in the Coleraine & District Football League.

History

The club was established by local footballers in 1970 who wanted a club that could appeal to both the Catholic and Protestant populations of the town.History of the club
/ref> Their Sky Blues name and strip colour were taken from

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

club

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

. They settled at their current home Spires Park, a playing field which had been locally known as "Stoney Park", in 2007. They were members of the

Northern Ireland Intermediate League The Northern Ireland Intermediate League was an amateur intermediate league based in the north-west region of Northern Ireland. As one of the leagues in the 4th tier of Northern Irish football, the league champions could be promoted to the NIFL P ...

until 2012 and had their best season in that competition in 2005–06 when they finished as runners-up.Honours
/ref> For the 2012–13 season, the club moved to the

Ballymena & Provincial League Ballymena ( ; from , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 31,205 people at the 2021 United Kingdom census, making it the seventh largest town in Northern Ireland by population. It ...

. Honours won at intermediate level include two Northern Ireland Challenge Cup wins (2008–09 and 2009–10). The club reached the

Boxing Day Boxing Day, also called as Offering Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide (26 December). Boxing Day was once a day to donate gifts to those in need, but it has evolved to become a part ...

final of the

Craig Memorial Cup The Craig Memorial Cup, also known as the William Craig Memorial Cup is an intermediate football competition in Northern Ireland run by the North West of Ireland Football Association. The competition culminates in the final which has traditionall ...

in 2008 although they lost 3–0 to

Limavady United Limavady United Football Club is a semi-professional, Northern Irish football club playing in the NIFL Championship. The club comes from Limavady, County Londonderry, and plays home matches at the Showgrounds. Club colours are royal blue shirt ...

. The club first entered the

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Clearer Water Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary Association football, football single elimination, knockout cup compet ...

, Northern Ireland's senior knock-out competition, in the 2004–05 season when they reached the third round before being eliminated by

Moyola Park Moyola Park is a country estate near Castledawson, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It was formerly the home of Lady Moyola and Lord Moyola, former Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. The estate is and is home to Moyola Park Golf ...

. They were eliminated by Killymoon Rangers the following season

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

in 2006–07, both in the first round. Bloomfield eliminated the Sky Blues in the first round for a third season running in 2007–08 although in the preliminary round they established a club record Irish Cup win, beating Dunaghy 8–2. 2008–09 saw a further first round elimination at the hands of Draperstown Celtic. The Sky Blues reached the third round in 2009–10, losing to

Holywood Holy Wood or Holywood may refer to: Places * Holywood, County Down, a town and townland in Northern Ireland ** Holywood, County Down (civil parish), a civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland ** Holywood railway station (Northern Ireland) ...

and again in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

where they lost to Shankill United.

Youth development

The club is noted for its youth development, with youth teams organised in six age groups by the club. In 2011 four of the six teams reached the league cup finals of their respective leagues. The CIS Mini Soccer Centre, where their youth teams train, was recognised by the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team (1882–1950), Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became t ...

for its contributions to the local game in 2007.

References

External links

Official site

Recent fixtures
{{Football in Northern Ireland Association football clubs in Northern Ireland Association football clubs established in 1970 Association football clubs in County Londonderry 1970 establishments in Northern Ireland