Crusaders Football Club is a professional Northern Irish football club, playing in the NIFL Premiership, highest level of the Irish League. The club, founded in 1898, is based in north Belfast and plays its home matches at Seaview. Crusaders originally played as a junior level team until 1931. They then played intermediate level football until 1949, and during that time they were one of the top non-senior teams in the country, winning the Irish Intermediate League nine times and the Steel & Sons Cup on seven occasions. After the withdrawal of Belfast Celtic, Crusaders were elected to the top level in their place, in time for the start of the 1949–50 season. Since then, the club has won 30 senior trophies; seven league titles, five Irish Cups, two League Cups, eight County Antrim Shields, one Setanta Sports Cup, one Charity Shield, two Gold Cups, three Ulster Cups and one Carlsberg Cup. The club's traditional kit colours are red and black, and the current manager is former player Stephen Baxter, who is now the club's longest serving manager, having been appointed in 2005. The club's closest rivals are Cliftonville, with whom they contest the North Belfast derby. Rivalries also exist with other Belfast sides such as Linfield and Glentoran. History Junior years (1898–1921) Crusaders Football Club was formed in the year 1898, although the exact date is unknown. The first meeting of the Club is believed to have been held at 182 North Queen Street, Belfast, the home of Thomas Palmer who, along with James McEldowney, John Hume and Thomas Wade, was a member of the original club committee. Various names were suggested for the club, including 'Rowan Star', 'Cultra United', 'Mervue Wanderers', 'Moyola' (all names of local streets), and others such as 'Queen's Rovers', and the 'Lilliputians'. Thomas Palmer felt a name of more international significance should be adopted and he suggested "Crusaders", after the medieval Christian knights. Initially, the club was only able to undertake friendly fixtures until it was formally admitted to one of the local junior leagues. Players were compelled to pay a match fee of two pence before they could take the field; a strict "no pay, no play" club policy was enforced. The very first competitive game of which there is any existing written record was on 10 December 1898. It came in the North Belfast Alliance against opponents named Bedford at Alexandra Park and