Intermediate club confirm league withdrawal 'with a heavy heart' after feeling it has 'outgrown us'

Dunloy, who play their home games at McCamphill Park, competed in BPFL Intermediate Division One and have celebrated significant success in the past, including winning the league title in 2020 when they went unbeaten throughout the season, winning 19 and drawing two of 21 matches.

Founded in 1997, Dunloy had played one league match at the start of this season alongside competing in the Irish Cup and Steel & Sons Cup, but they’ve now made the decision to withdraw their first team from the competition.

Dunloy finished last term sitting third in the 10-team division, rounding out their league campaign by beating champions Strabane Athletic, who booked a spot in the Irish League for the first time in their history ahead of this season.

They also reached the Crawford Cup final before losing out 2-1 to Strabane at Allen Park.

Their reserve side, who play in the Coleraine Morning Championship, will now become the club’s main team moving forward.

"It is with a heavy heart the club would like to announce our withdrawal from the Ballymena Intermediate Division 1,” the club posted. “There are various reasons for such an important decision, but ultimately we feel the league has outgrown us.

"We take great pride in that we do not pay any players and have been blessed with some terrific lads in our changing room over the past 15+years who played for the jersey.

“We won every trophy available to us in the division at some stage and had some great battles with rival clubs.

"The current reserve side will become our 'main' team and continue to do us proud in a really competitive Coleraine morning division.

"We will plough all our efforts into the morning side and our new Youth teams. Thank you to the Ballymena League for having us and giving us such wonderful memories.”