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Sirocco Works F.C.

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Sirocco Works
Full nameSirocco Works Football Club
Nickname(s)The Roc
Founded1924
GroundDixon Park, Belfast
ChairmanGerry Kirkwood
ManagerDarren Frame
LeagueNAFL Division 1A
2017–18NAFL Division 1A, 5th

Sirocco Works Football Club is a Northern Irish intermediate football club playing in Division 1A of the Northern Amateur Football League. Established in 1924, the club is the longest existing club in all the intermediate and junior divisions in Northern Ireland.[1] The club currently play matches at Dixon Park in East Belfast. Darren Frame is the current first team manager, assisted by Lee Ashe & Leigh Cassidy. The club also fields a second team in Division 3B of the Amateur League as well as several youth teams.

Club history

The club is historically linked to the Sirocco Engineering Works located on the east bank of the River Lagan in Belfast. Established in 1881, the company was one of the leading makers of rope in the world before focusing on the tea industry and supplying the local Harland and Wolff shipyards. It was one of the biggest employers in Belfast and from this spawned the Sirocco Works Football Club.

The club joined the Amateur League in 1924 and is the longest-serving member of that league, in unbroken membership ever since.[1] It originally played its home games in Castlereagh, before moving to Warnock Park in the 1950s and the Dixon Park, Belfast.[2] The success of the football club mirrored that of the engineering firm with the majority of the club's trophies won in the 1930s and 40s. From 1934 up to 1940 the club won six back-to-back league titles and numerous cups. The 1938/39 season saw the club claim four honours including the league title, Border Regiment Cup and Clarence Mayes Cup. But the most important of which was their Steel and Sons Cup victory as they became the first amateur side to lift this prestigious trophy.

The times following World War II saw the decline of industry in Belfast. Similarly the football club started to struggle in the League. By 1960 the club picked up their last notable honour for the next 20 years, an appearance in the final of the Border Cup. In 1999 came the death knell for the Sirocco Engineering Works as the site was closed to be redeveloped.

Despite the closure of the parent Sirocco engineering plant board members of the football club decided to continue under the Sirocco name.

Recently the club has seen a return to winning ways by winning Division 1B in 2007–08.

Honours

Intermediate honours

  • Northern Amateur Football League: 8
    • 1926–27, 1934–35, 1935–36, 1936–37, 1937–38, 1938–39, 1939–40, 1947–48
  • Clarence Cup: 6
    • 1925–26, 1926–27, 1938–39, 1943–44, 1945–46, 1947–48
  • Border Cup: 6
    • 1936–37, 1937–38, 1938–39, †1941–42, 1944–45, 1945–46

† Won by 2nd XI

Notes

  1. ^ a b H. Johnstone & G. Hamilton (n.d.) A Memorable Milestone: 75 Years of the Northern Amateur Football League, p. 217
  2. ^ H. Johnstone & G. Hamilton (n.d.) A Memorable Milestone: 75 Years of the Northern Amateur Football League, p. 218
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