Newry City F.C. are an Northern Irish's football club playing currently in the IFA Carling Premiership. The club, founded in 1923, is based in Newry, County Down and plays its home matches at The Showgrounds. Club colours are blue, white & yellow. The club's manager is John McDonnell, having taken over after Gerry Flynn resigned shortly after the 2009/10 season began.
The club was originally known as Newry Town - it was renamed in 2004, two years after Newry obtained City status.
The club's most successful period was the late 1990s, during John McDonnell's first period at the Club. After winning the First Division in the 1997/98 season, the club managed to finish fourth in the Premier Division, thus qualifying for the Intertoto Cup.
In this, their first ever appearnace in European competition, Newry Town (as they were then known) were drawn against the Croatian side Hrvatski Dragovoljac. A 1-0 defeat in Croatia was followed by an historic 2-0 win at home to send the club into the second round. There they met met Bundesliga side MSV Duisberg. Again, Newry were drawn away in the first leg, coming away with a respectable 2-0 defeat to the German proffessionals. A 1-0 win at home wasn't enough to force extra time but the side had exceeded expectations in the tournament.
Since the 1999/00 season, the club went into decline, culminating in a last place finish in the league in 2002/03. However, thanks to the resurrecting of the Irish Football League they were required to play off against Bangor over two legs. A 0-0 away draw and a 2-1 home win kept the club in the top flight.
In the 2006/07 season, big things were expected of Roy Coyle's team, an individual seen by many as the most successful manager in the history of the Irish League. However, poor results resulted in Coyle leaving the club. He was replaced by Gerry Flynn at the start of 2007.
In Flynn's first full season in charge (2007/08) he and his assistant Peter Murray, steered the club to 8th position in the final league table.
Their second season in charge was one of similar fortunes. After a largely unsuccessful league campaign, Flynn steered his troops from 11th in the table with five games to go to a final position of 8th after four wins and a draw in the final run in. This was coupled with the fact that the club reached their first major cup final in 22 years, when they played Portadown in the decider of the CIS Cup. Unfortunately for Newry, a Gary McCutcheon goal for Portadown was enough to win the game and leave the club still searching for their first major trophy.
As stated the 2009/10 season saw former player/coach John McDonnell return for his second stint in charge having experienced a great deal of success in the FAI Premier League with, in turn, Dublin City F.C. Shelbourne F.C. & St. Patricks Athletic F.C. in total being part of a winning Premier League management team in for four of the previous seven seasons up to 2008/09.