Abbey Villa F.C.

Abbey Villa

Full name	Abbey Villa Football Club
Founded	1955 (as Millisle United)
Ground	Adams Park Millisle, County Down
Joint Managers	Graham Bailie and Mark Bailie
League	NAFL 1A (expelled) season = 2014/15
Home colours

Abbey Villa Football Club is a Northern Irish football club, currently play Division 1A of the Northern Amateur Football League until the 2014/15 season, it was found by the FA that Abbey Villa cheated to avoid relegation. The club was formed in 1955 as Millisle United. The team currently play their home matches at Adams Park on Abbey Road, Millisle under the management of TJ Young. Villa field four adult men's teams . As well as the first team, there is a second team playing in the NAFL Division 3B, third team in the Down Area League Division 1 and a fourth team in third team in the Down Area League Division 2b. They also have a strong Youth system with 9 teams and very dedicated team of youth coaches.

Club history

The club was formed in 1955 by founding members Thomas Waugh (known locally as the unofficial mayor of Millisle) and Lennie Bennett along with his brothers Nelson, Tom, Raymond and Norman. The team, then known as Millisle United played its first season in the Cardy League. The following season they played in the Irish Churches League under the name of Millisle Presbyterian. In 1962, Thomas Waugh followed the advice of fellow club chairman Herbie Johnstone and applied to join the Northern Amateur Football League.

Abbey Villa remained in the Junior section of the NAFL until their memorable season of 1992/3. The club had just moved into their new grounds at Adams Park (named after then manager Brian Adams) and on its debut season saw the club win Division 1B by 11 points and lift the Border Regiment Cup after a 5-0 win in the final over Drumaness Mills. The club also had a successful Irish Cup run under Adams in 1995/6 reaching the last 16 before being knocked out by Lisburn Distillery.

Under the management of Mark and Graham, they repeated their Cup run. In the 2007/8 season they were knocked out of the sixth round after a narrow 1-0 defeat to Donegal Celtic. They also won the prestigious Border Regiment Cup. . They finished the 2008/9 on 70 points, 15 points ahead of their nearest rivals, to claim the league title and promotion to the Premier division.

Honours

Intermediate honours

• Clarence Cup: 1
  • 1990/91
• Border Cup: 2
  • 1992/93, 2007/08

External links

• Abbey Villa Official Club website
• nifootball.co.uk - (For fixtures, results and tables of all Northern Ireland amateur football leagues)