1965–66 Irish League

The 1965–66 Irish League was the 65th edition of the Irish League, the highest level of league competition in Northern Irish football. The league consisted of 12 teams, and Linfield won the championship.

Irish League

Season	1965–66
Champions	Linfield 27th Irish title
Matches played	132
Goals scored	553 (4.19 per match)
Top goalscorer	Sammy Pavis (28)
← 1964–65 1966–67 →

Belfast

Ards

Ballymena United

Bangor

Coleraine

Derry City

Glenavon

Portadown

Belfast teams : Cliftonville
Crusaders
Distillery
Glentoran
Linfield

class=notpageimage|

Location of teams in the Irish League from 1949–1972

Cliftonville

Crusaders

Distillery

Glentoran

Linfield

class=notpageimage|

Location of Belfast-based teams in the Irish League from 1949–1971

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GR	Pts	Qualification
1	Linfield (C)	22	14	6	2	68	23	2.957	34	Qualification for the European Cup first round
2	Derry City	22	15	2	5	61	33	1.848	32
3	Glentoran	22	15	2	5	50	29	1.724	32	European Cup Winners' Cup and Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
4	Ballymena United	22	11	6	5	51	33	1.545	28
5	Glenavon	22	11	3	8	62	38	1.632	25
6	Coleraine	22	10	5	7	52	36	1.444	25
7	Crusaders	22	9	3	10	49	47	1.043	21
8	Portadown	22	7	3	12	43	53	0.811	17
9	Distillery	22	5	6	11	39	52	0.750	16
10	Ards	22	4	6	12	29	54	0.537	14
11	Bangor	22	5	4	13	26	59	0.441	14
12	Cliftonville	22	1	4	17	23	96	0.240	6

Source: rsssf.com
(C) Champions

Results

Home \ Away	ARD	BAN	BLM	CLI	COL	CRU	DIS	DER	GLV	GLT	LIN	POR
Ards		1–2	1–2	1–1	0–0	2–2	1–0	0–3	1–3	2–3	1–3	1–4
Bangor	2–2		0–0	3–1	0–3	1–1	1–3	1–0	2–5	0–4	1–4	4–1
Ballymena United	2–2	2–0		8–0	1–2	5–2	3–0	3–4	5–5	2–1	0–0	1–0
Cliftonville	2–1	1–3	1–5		3–3	0–4	0–3	1–1	1–6	3–5	0–10	0–6
Coleraine	5–1	6–0	1–3	6–2		2–2	3–0	3–1	2–0	0–1	0–0	1–1
Crusaders	6–1	4–1	1–3	7–1	4–2		1–0	1–2	2–1	0–1	2–3	5–0
Distillery	2–2	3–1	1–1	2–2	3–1	1–2		2–5	2–4	0–4	3–3	3–3
Derry City	4–1	4–2	5–1	4–1	3–2	5–0	3–1		1–3	3–2	0–0	5–0
Glenavon	1–2	3–1	0–1	6–1	2–4	4–1	2–1	1–2		8–2	0–1	4–1
Glentoran	2–3	3–1	0–0	2–0	2–0	2–1	7–3	0–1	0–0		2–0	2–0
Linfield	5–1	8–0	5–2	3–0	4–1	6–1	3–3	3–2	1–1	1–2		3–0
Portadown	0–2	0–0	2–1	7–2	3–5	4–0	0–3	5–3	4–3	1–3	1–2

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

References

• Northern Ireland - List of final tables (RSSSF)