Milltown is a

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 ...

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

Warrenpoint Warrenpoint () is a small port town and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It sits at the head of Carlingford Lough, south of Newry, and is separated from the Republic of Ireland by a narrow strait. The town is beside the village ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the ...

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 ...

. It is the home ground of Warrenpoint Town of the

NIFL Premier Intermediate League The NIFL Premier Intermediate League (Known as the Playr-Fit NIFL Premier Intermediate League for sponsorship reasons) is the third level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national association football league in Northern Ireland, and t ...

. The stadium sits in the larger Milltown Sports Complex, in the area of Warrenpoint of the same name. The ground was upgraded in 2013 after Warrenpoint were promoted to the Premiership, to satisfy the rules of that league.

History

In 2008, Warrenpoint Town applied to turn the pitch from natural grass into a

3G pitch Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass, used in sports arenas, residential lawns and commercial applications that traditionally use grass. It is much more durable than grass and easily maintained wi ...

, which was granted by the

Newry and Mourne District Council Newry and Mourne District Council () was a local council in Northern Ireland. It merged with Down District Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become Newry, Mourne and Down District Council. It inclu ...

. In 2013, Warrenpoint Town were promoted to the NIFL Premiership. Owing to previous consecutive promotions, Milltown did not meet 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 ...

's criteria for use in the Premiership. As a result, the ground required renovation. Warrenpoint Town originally applied to play their home games at The Showgrounds,

Newry Newry (; ) is a City status in Ireland, city in Northern Ireland, standing on the Newry River, Clanrye river in counties County Down, Down and County Armagh, Armagh. It is near Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, the border with the ...

. However the stadium owners at Newry refused them permission. Instead they were obliged to groundshare with

Dungannon Swifts Dungannon Swifts Football Club is a Northern Irish semi-professional football club playing in the NIFL Premiership. The club, founded in 1949, has risen from the Mid-Ulster league to the top tier in Northern Ireland since its election to the I ...

Stangmore Park Stangmore Park is a football stadium in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Dungannon Swifts, and holds around 2,000 spectators, 300 of whom can be seated. History Stangmore Park was opened in 1975 after a t ...

Dungannon Dungannon (, ) is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is the second-largest town in the county (after Omagh) and had a population of 16,282 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2021 Census. The Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Counci ...

away whilst Milltown was redeveloped. Newry and Mourne Council granted Milltown £225,500 to assist with the redevelopment. On 21 December 2013, Milltown was opened for its first NIFL Premiership match between Warrenpoint Town and Glenavon. However the match was forced to be abandoned after one of the floodlights failed. Despite the renovations, aimed to assist the ground to meet

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

standards, observers note that the facilities are still limited at Milltown. It was used as justification for applying for a UEFA licence. Their 2019 application was refused however. In 2018, it was announced that

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (Irish language, Irish: ''Comhairle Ceantair an Iúir, Mhúrn agus an Dúin'') is a local authority in Northern Ireland that was established on 1 April 2015. It replaces Down District Council and Newry and ...

planned to redevelop Milltown as the location for a new community hub due to plans to purchase a surplus

Police Service of Northern Ireland The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI; ; Ulster-Scots: '), is the police service responsible for law enforcement and the prevention of crime within Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) after it ...

station falling through. However, this proposal was not recommended to the council's committee. This was due to accessibility and location issues, which led to the council preferring to build the hub at Clonallon Park instead.

Usage

While Milltown is predominantly used by Warrenpoint Town for association football, it has also been used for

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

Warrenpoint GAA St Peter's GAA () is a Gaelic Athletic Association club in Warrenpoint, County Down, Northern Ireland. Foundation Gaelic games in Warrenpoint pre-date the formal formation of St Peter's as a club existed in the area from at least from 1888. Th ...

. Milltown is considered by some opposing football managers as being a hard place to play at.

References

{{reflist

History

Usage

References

See also