1988–89 Irish League

The 1988–89 Irish League was the 88th edition of the Irish League, the highest level of league competition in Northern Irish football. The league consisted of 14 teams, and Linfield won the championship.

Irish League

Season	1988–89
Champions	Linfield 40th Irish title
Matches played	182
Goals scored	520 (2.86 per match)
Top goalscorer	Stephen Baxter (17)
← 1987–88 1989–90 →

Belfast

Ards

Ballymena United

Bangor

Carrick

Coleraine

Distillery

Glenavon

Larne

Newry Town

Portadown

Belfast teams : Cliftonville
Crusaders
Glentoran
Linfield

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Location of teams in the Irish League from 1983–1990

Cliftonville

Crusaders

Glentoran

Linfield

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Location of Belfast-based teams in the Irish League from 1983–1990

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Linfield (C)	26	21	2	3	58	19	+39	65	Qualification for the European Cup first round
2	Glentoran	26	17	4	5	60	29	+31	55	Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round
3	Coleraine	26	15	5	6	42	23	+19	50
4	Bangor	26	12	9	5	42	30	+12	45
5	Glenavon	26	13	5	8	47	34	+13	44
6	Portadown	26	10	9	7	29	19	+10	39
7	Cliftonville	26	9	9	8	42	30	+12	36
8	Carrick Rangers	26	11	3	12	29	40	−11	36
9	Ballymena United	26	6	11	9	33	41	−8	29	Qualification for the European Cup Winners' Cup first round
10	Larne	26	6	10	10	38	38	0	28
11	Newry Town	26	7	5	14	33	43	−10	26
12	Crusaders	26	5	5	16	22	47	−25	20
13	Ards	26	4	6	16	25	54	−29	18
14	Distillery	26	3	3	20	20	73	−53	12

Source: rsssf.com
(C) Champions

Results

Home \ Away	ARD	BAN	BLM	CRK	CLI	COL	CRU	DIS	GLV	GLT	LRN	LIN	NEW	POR
Ards		2–3	0–0	0–1	0–4	0–2	2–0	1–1	1–5	1–5	3–1	1–3	4–3	0–0
Bangor	2–1		1–1	1–1	3–1	3–4	1–0	2–0	1–1	2–1	1–1	1–1	2–0	1–1
Ballymena United	3–2	2–1		1–2	3–3	2–0	1–1	3–0	0–3	1–2	0–0	0–4	2–2	3–1
Carrick Rangers	1–0	2–3	0–0		2–1	0–1	0–2	1–0	1–3	0–3	3–1	1–3	1–0	1–2
Cliftonville	2–2	0–1	4–1	5–1		1–1	1–0	4–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–3	1–2	1–1
Coleraine	1–1	2–1	4–1	0–1	0–0		3–1	2–0	0–1	2–3	2–0	0–2	3–2	2–0
Crusaders	0–1	0–3	0–0	0–3	1–2	0–3		2–1	1–0	0–3	1–1	1–2	3–1	1–3
Distillery	2–0	1–2	2–2	0–2	0–4	0–3	2–2		2–1	1–3	1–6	1–5	1–2	0–2
Glenavon	3–0	3–2	2–1	2–1	3–2	1–2	3–3	3–2		2–3	2–2	0–1	0–0	0–2
Glentoran	1–0	2–1	3–2	4–0	2–2	1–1	3–0	8–2	2–3		3–1	2–3	2–0	0–1
Larne	1–1	1–1	1–1	1–2	0–0	0–2	4–0	7–0	1–3	0–1		3–2	1–2	1–0
Linfield	2–1	0–1	1–0	4–1	2–0	2–0	3–0	3–0	2–1	1–2	2–2		1–0	2–1
Newry Town	6–1	1–1	2–3	2–0	1–3	0–2	0–3	3–0	1–0	1–1	1–2	0–3		1–1
Portadown	2–0	1–1	0–0	1–1	0–1	0–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	2–0	4–0	0–1	2–0

Source: Irish League Archive
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

References

• Northern Ireland - List of final tables (RSSSF)