How hard is it to defend the LOI title?

[updated November 2019]

Fairly hard. It’s been done only 7 times in the Premier Divison era (by 5 different clubs). Dundalk’s 3 in a row from 2014-2016 was the first time a non-Dublin club had retained the title in over 40 years.

4-in-a-row

• 1983/84 to 1986/87 Shamrock Rovers

3-in-a-row

• 1940/41 to 1942/43 Cork United
• 1967/68 to 1969/70 Waterford
• 2014 to 2016 Dundalk

2-in-a-row

• 1937/38 & 1938/39 Shamrock Rovers
• 1944/45 & 1945/46 Cork United (5 titles in 6 seasons)
• 1947/48 & 1948/49 Drumcondra
• 1949/50 & 1950/51 Cork Athletic
• 1954/55 & 1955/56 St Patrick’s Athletic
• 1971/72 & 1972/73 Waterford (5 titles in 6 seasons)
• 1997/98 & 1998/99 St Patrick’s Athletic (3 titles in 4 seasons)
• 2003 & 2004 Shelbourne (3 titles in 4 seasons)
• 2008 & 2009 Bohemians
• 2010 & 2011 Shamrock Rovers
• 2018 & 2019 Dundalk (5 titles in 6 seasons)

 

League of Ireland Trebles and Doubles

[updated end 2019]

There have been 98 seasons of the league and the “treble” has only been earned 5 times. Up to 1974 that treble was League, FAI Cup and Shield and since then it is League, FAI Cup and League Cup.

Winners of the LOI treble

• 1924/25 Shamrock Rovers (LOI/FAI Cup/Shield)
• 1927/28 Bohemians (LOI/FAI Cup/Shield)
• 1931/32 Shamrock Rovers (LOI/FAI Cup/Shield)
• 1963/64 Shamrock Rovers (LOI/FAI Cup/Shield)
• 1988/89 Derry City (LOI/FAI Cup/League Cup)

Winners of the League and FAI Cup Double

• 1921/22 St James Gate
• 1940/41 Cork United
• 1950/51 Cork Athletic
• 1978/79 Dundalk
• 1984/85 Shamrock Rovers
• 1985/86 Shamrock Rovers
• 1986/87 Shamrock Rovers
• 1987/88 Dundalk
• 1999/2000 Shelbourne
• 2000/01 Bohemians
• 2008 Bohemians
• 2015 Dundalk
• 2017 Cork City
• 2018 Dundalk

Winners of the League and Shield/League Cup ‘minor’ double

• 1922/23 Shamrock Rovers (Shield)
• 1923/24 Bohemians (Shield)
• 1925/26 Shelbourne (Shield)
• 1926/27 Shamrock Rovers (Shield)
• 1933/34 Bohemians (Shield)
• 1937/38 Shamrock Rovers (Shield)
• 1942/43 Cork United (Shield)
• 1956/57 Shamrock Rovers (Shield)
• 1966/67 Dundalk (Shield)
• 1968/69 Waterford (Shield)
• 1974/75 Bohemians (League Cup)
• 1982/83 Athlone Town (League Cup)
• 2009 Bohemians (League Cup)
• 2014 Dundalk (League Cup)
• 2019 Dundalk (League Cup)

Winners of the FAI Cup and Shield/League Cup ‘cup double’

• 1932/33 Shamrock Rovers (Shield)
• 1945/46 Drumcondra (Shield)
• 1954/55 Shamrock Rovers (Shield)
• 1955/56 Shamrock Rovers (Shield)
• 1964/65 Shamrock Rovers (Shield)
• 1965/66 Shamrock Rovers (Shield)
• 1967/68 Shamrock Rovers (Shield)
• 1972/73 Cork Hibernians (Shield)
• 1980/81 Dundalk (League Cup)
• 1995/96 Shelbourne (League Cup)
• 2004 Longford Town (League Cup)
• 2006 Derry City (League Cup)
• 2010 Sligo Rovers (League Cup)

Winners of the LOI First Division and FAI Cup ‘mini’ double

• 1993/94 Sligo Rovers

TOTALS

Trebles won

• 3 Shamrock Rovers
• 1 Bohemians, Derry City

LOI/FAI Doubles

• 4 – Dundalk
• 3 – Shamrock Rovers
• 2 – Bohemians, Cork United/Athletic
• 1 – St James Gate, Shelbourne, Cork City

LOI/Shd&LC Doubles

• 4 – Bohemians, Shamrock Rovers
• 3 – Dundalk
• 1 – Athlone Town, Cork United, Shelbourne, Waterford

Cup Double

• 6 – Shamrock Rovers
• 1 – Cork Hibernians, Derry City, Drumcondra, Dundalk, Longford Town, Shelbourne, Sligo Rovers

1st Div/FAI Double

• 1 – Sligo Rovers

Total Doubles

• 16 – Shamrock Rovers
• 8 – Dundalk
• 6 – Bohemians
• 3 – Cork United/Athletic, Shelbourne
• 2 – Sligo Rovers
• 1 – Athlone Town, Cork Hibernians, Derry City, Drumcondra,  Longford Town, St James Gate, Waterford, Cork City

Total Multiple Trophy seasons (big 3 comps only)

• 19 – Shamrock Rovers
• 8 – Dundalk
• 7 – Bohemians
• 3 – Cork United/Athletic, Shelbourne
• 2 – Derry City, Sligo Rovers
• 1 – Athlone Town, Cork Hibernians, Drumcondra,  Longford Town, St James Gate, Waterford, Cork City

For the purposes of this list I left out all the trophies ranked below the top 3 that were played at national level (Dublin City Cup, Top 4, FAI Super Cup, FAI President’s Cup, First Division Shield, PJ Casey), all the provincial cups and all the north/south competitions

Complete Records for the 2014 League of Ireland entries in UEFA competitions

The League of Ireland will be represented by 4 clubs in European competition this season (2014/15); St Patrick’s Athletic (Champions League),  Derry City, Dundalk and Sligo Rovers (all Europa League). Here’s how they got in previous years. (You can click the pics to enlarge them)

St Patrick’s Athletic

• This is Pats 15th campaign and their 4th in the European Cup/Champions League.
• Pats have played in every form of every European competition (European Cup/Champions League, Inter-cities Fairs Cup/UEFA Cup/Europa League, Cup Winners Cup, Inter-toto Cup). Shamrock Rovers are the only other club to do so (Shelbourne have played in all bar the Europa League))
• Pats hold the record for most knockout ties won by an Irish club with 9 (2 more than nearest rivals).

Sligo Rovers

• This is Sligo’s 9th European campaign and their 4th in the Europa League
• Sligo have drawn at least one game in each of their 3 Europa Leagie ties. This will be their first time being seeded.
• Sligo’s win over Floriana in 1994 was the last Irish win until 2000.

Dundalk

• This is Dundalk’s 18th European campaign and their 8th in the Fairs/UEFA Cup/Europa League.
• Dundalk were the first team to win through two rounds in Europe in 1979/80 beating Linfield and Hibernians before losing to Celtic.

Derry City

• Derry City have represented both the Irish League and the League of Ireland in Europe.
• They were the first Irish league side to win a round in Europe in 1965
• They hold the record away win for LOI with a 5-1 win over Scotland’s Gretna in 2006.

 

Average finishing position for every League of Ireland club

You won’t be surprised to read that the team with the most League of Ireland titles, Shamrock Rovers, is also the team with the best average finishing position. The method of calculating that is quite simple. Add up each finishing position earned by the clubs and divide by the number of seasons. For 2 division years (ie since 1985/86) the first division counts as a continuation of the premier. (eg in 2013 12th in the Premier is 12, 1st in the First Division is 13 etc).

So here’s the average finishing position of every League of Ireland club that has completed at least 5 seasons.

No real surprise to see Shamrock Rovers top with the 2 longest serving Cork clubs taking up 2nd and 3rd position. The top 12 teams have all won the league. Best of the non-league winning clubs is Jacobs who’s 3rd place finish in 1923/24 is their best effort. Athlone Town have, by far, the lowest average for any league winners.

It should be noted that teams who have played in the first division are at a disadvantage here. Thurles Town is the lowest average for clubs who didn’t played in the first division (ie the lowest they could finish was 16th)

I thought it was unfair to include teams with less than 5 seasons in the above table so here they are separately;

Reds United, a short-lived breakaway from Shelbourne, finished 4th in their only LOI season in 1935/36. As we outlined previously, Salthill Devon never finished above last place in the league tables.

Here’s the table for current LOI sides. I haven’t counted Galway FC or Shamrock Rovers B as they haven’t completed a season yet. I treat Galway separate to Galway United/Rovers.

18 League of Ireland clubs have won the title. Here’s how they rank

As an aside there’s 34 clubs who have competed in the League of Ireland and who haven’t won the title. Of these Finn Harps have played the most seasons (45). Wexford Youths is still awaiting it’s first Premier Division season.

As ever, if you’ve any questions, let me know on twitter

PFAI Nominations

The 2013 PFAI Awards were handed on last weekend and St Patrick’s Athletic midfielder Killian Brennan won the Players’ Player of the Year award.  It was his first win, coming from his second nomination. He was previously nominated in 2008 with Bohemians.

Since 2000/01, only 13 players have been nominated more than once for the PFAI POTY.  They are

Multiple PFAI POTY Nominations since 2000/01
4	Glen Crowe	Bohemians
4	Kevin Hunt	Bohemians
4	Jason Byrne	Shelbourne 3, Bohemians 1
4	Owen Heary	Shelbourne 3, Bohemians 1
3	Brian Shelley	Drogheda 1, Bohemians 2
3	Joe Gamble	Cork City
3	Mark Quigley	St Pats, Dundalk, Sligo Rovers
2	Brian Murphy	Bohemians
2	George O’Callaghan	Cork City
2	Gary Twigg	Shamrock Rovers
2	Tony Grant	Shamrock Rovers
2	Keith Fahey	St Patrick’s Athletic
2	Killian Brennan	Bohemians,St Patrick’s Athletic

Of those 13,  8 have won the award on at least one occasion (Crowe, Byrne, Heary, Shelley, Quigley, Twigg, Fahey, Brennan).

There have been 80 nominations in that time period spread around 14 different clubs

Noms	Club	Players	Individuals
18	Bohemians	G Crowe 4, K Hunt 4,  B Murphy 2, B Shelley 2, Bobby Ryan, Colin Hawkins, Gary Deegan, J Byrne, K Brennan, O Heary	10
10	Shelbourne	O Heary 3, J Byrne 3, Jamie Harris, Joseph Ndo, Ollie Cahill, Stuart Byrne
9	St Patrick’s Athletic	K Fahey 2, Paul Osam, Liam Kelly, M Quigley, Daryl Kavanagh, Sean O’Connor, Killian Brennan, Greg Bolger	8
8	Derry City	Ciaran Martyn, Damien Kelly, Gary Beckett, Liam Coyle, Eamon Zayed, Mark Farren, Peter Hutton, Stuart Greacen	8
7	Cork City	J Gamble 3, G O’Callaghan 2, Kevin Doyle, John O’Flynn	4
7	Shamrock Rovers	G Twigg 2, T Grant 2, Alan Mannus, Pat Sullivan, Ronan Finn	5
6	Sligo Rovers	Raf Cretaro, Richie Ryan, Podge Amond, Eoin Doyle, M Quigley, Jason McGuinness
4	Drogheda United	Fabio O’Brien, Brian Shelley, Jason Gavin, Shane Robinson	4
4	Dundalk	Chris Turner, M Quigley, Pat Hoban, Richie Towell	4
2	Longford Town	Alan Kirby, Dave Mooney	2
2	UCD	Barry Ryan, Tony McDonnell	2
1	Bray Wanderers	Colm Tresson	1
1	Dublin City	Gary O’Neill	1
1	Sporting Fingal	Shaun Williams	1

Some of those nominated were also nominated before the 2000/01 season (eg Paul Osam who won the award in 1998/99) but records of nominations are hard to come by. If you have them for all years, please get in contact. (I have asked the PFAI but didn’t receive a reply).

5 of the nominees were also nominated for Young POTY in the same year as their senior nomination;

• 2008 Mark Quigley (lost both awards)
• 2009 Gary Deegan (lost both awards)
• 2010 Shaun Williams (won YPOTY)
• 2012 Richie Towell (won YPOTY), Pat Hoban (lost both awards)

Of the 80 nominations, Barry Ryan’s in 2002/03 is the oldest for an active player. He is one of only 3 goalkeepers nominated for the award in the time frame.

Position	Nominations	Players
Defender	17	12
Forward	32	21
Goalkeeper	4	3
Midfield	27	20

No player (in the time frame) has been nominated for POTY while in the First Division. 3 of the nominees had though, been previously nominated for the First Division POTY award (Stuart Byrne in 99/00, Alan Kirby in 00/01 and Ronan Finn in 2009 – Finn was the only winner).

Up until 2012, there were 6 nominees and there have been 4 nominees in the past 2 years. There has been at least one club with multiple nominations in each season (usually from the league winners). The most nominations was 4 for Bohemians in 2008. Unfortunately for them they lost out to 1 of the 2 nominees from St Patrick’s Athletic (Keith Fahey). This season again saw only 2 clubs represented, and again the winner was from St Pats.

Season	Clubs	Champs
2000/01	5	2
2001/02	5	1
2002/03	4	3
2003	4	1
2004	4	3
2005	4	2
2006	4	2
2007	5	2
2008	2	4
2009	4	3
2010	4	2
2011	4	1
2012	3	2
2013	2	2

As above, if you can help add depth to this article by adding info for previous season, do get in touch!  You can check out some more League of Ireland award trivia here.

Richie Towell of Dundalk wins the LOI POTM for August 2013

Dundalk midfielder Richie Towell won his first SWAI/Airtricity League Player of the Month award for his performances during August 2013.

The award is the second consecutive award for Dundalk and their 23rd overall since the award was introduced.

Here’s the full list of POTM winners from Dundalk;

Dundalk POTM winners
1975/76	March	Seamus McDonnell
1976/77	March	Mick Lawlor
1978/79	September	Dermot Keely
1978/79	March	Paddy Dunning
1978/79	April	Sean Byrne
1979/80	October	Dermot Keely
1979/80	February	Richie Blackmore
1980/81	October	Mick Fairclough
1981/82	September	Barry Kehoe
1981/82	April	Tom McConville
1982/83	October	Leo Flanagan
1985/86	December	Joey Malone
1986/87	November	Barry Kehoe
1987/88	March	Terry Eviston
1987/88	April	Dessie Gorman
1988/89	January	Larry Wyse
1990/91	October	Peter Hanrahan
1990/91	April	Tom McNulty
1997/98	October	Brian Byrne
2006	October	Philip Hughes
2011	March	Mark Quigley
2013	July	Patrick Hoban
2013	August	Richie Towell

Dundalk’s 23 awards leaves them with the joint 6th most winners.  Here’s how it stands for all clubs;

As ever, if you’ve any questions ask me on twitter…

LOI Clubs in Europe – Records by Club

As League of Ireland clubs prepare for their entry into European Competition for 2013/2014 I thought I’d go through some European statistics and trivia.  So far LOI clubs have played 475 European games, including 228 knock out ties. 

Here’s the European record for the 22 clubs who have represented the League of Ireland in European competition;

LOI clubs in Europe – Records by Club

I have them sort by European entries, then games played, then ties won..

• You can see that Bohemians have entered European competition the most with 26 entries. Irish teams have competed for 55 years so no club has been in Europe more than half the time.
• Shamrock Rovers have played equal most games.  Their superb run to the Europa League group stages in 2011/12 accounts for 12 of these games.
• St Patrick’s Athletic have the most knock out ties won with 9.  8 of these have come in their last 4 entries into Europe.
• Drogheda United are the only club without a losing record.  They have won 5 and lost 5 of their 14 games so far.
• The above shows that Irish clubs have won 53 knock out ties.  On 10 occasions Irish clubs have won through 2 rounds in Europe. They’re broken down as (4 – St Patrick’s Athletic, 2, – Cork City, 1 – Derry City, Dundalk, Shamrock Rovers, Shelbourne).  Shamrock Rovers is unique as they won in the Champions League, then lost in the Champions League, then won in the Europa League.  Dundalk and Shelbourne had their wins in the European Cup/Champions League, Cork City have one ‘double’ in the Inter-toto Cup.  All other doubles in the UEFA Cup/Europa League.
• The record aggregate win by an Irish club in Europe is Shamrock Rovers 7-0 win over Fram (Iceland) in 1982/83.  The record loss is 1-16 by Finn Harps against Derby County in 1976/77.

If you’re a Euro snob and you refuse to acknowledge the Inter-toto cup.  Here’s the records with those games excluded;

LOI Clubs in Europe, excluding the inter-toto cup

As ever, any questions ask away

Has your Airtricity League team improved from 2012? Some analysis

At the end of the first series of 11 games in this season’s League of Ireland season, Derry City held the top spot by virtue of goal difference from Sligo Rovers.  It’s generally accepted that Derry have greatly improved on their 2012 form, but the question is by how much?

If you compare how each side started the season, you can get a good idea (click on the image for full size).

Comparing the first 11 games (one series) of 2012 and 2013 season

But there’s a couple of complications there.  Limerick are a good deal better than Monaghan were last year, so what if we removed their results?  Monaghan’s were expunged anyway

Comparing opening series of games in 2012 and 2013 seasons excluding games involving Monaghan/Limerick

But that doesn’t tell the whole story either.  Due to Monaghan’s withdrawal and the change in the 2 home/1 away split between clubs, some clubs will have had 4 games away in 2012 and 6 away in 2013.   So the fairest way of tracking progress between 2012 and 2013 for your team is to compare the first 10 games of this season (not including Limerick) with the 2nd series of games last season (not including Monaghan’s 3 games before they folded).  It may sound a little complicated, but you’re comparing like-for-like with games.

As an example in the St Patrick’s Athletic v Drogheda United game played in 2012, Drogheda won 2-1.  This season St Pats won 1-0.  That sees Pats gain 3 points, and Drogheda lose 3 points.   Isn’t that better than comparing it to the Drogheda home game?

Here’s how teams have changed (click on the image for full size);

Comparing Series 1 in 2012 with corresponding fixtures in series 2012 (excluding Monaghan/Limerick)

You can see that Dundalk have improved by a whopping 13 points with Derry not far behind on 10.  The tables above show Sligo Rovers are a point worse off after the first series compared to their start last season.  By using the like-for-like corresponding fixtures, you can see that Sligo are actually 6 points better off than last year.

Interesting to see that only 4 sides have actually improved from last year. Trevor Croly’s Shamrock Rovers were 5 points worse off than Stephen Kenny’s Rovers team.  You can also see why there is growing unrest among Shelbourne fans as they are 10 points worse off.

As ever without statistic, these should only be used as a talking point as there’s clearly loads of factors involved. The only statistic that matters is the end league table.

League of Ireland teams in Europe – Records by Country

Clubs from the League of Ireland have played a total of 52 other UEFA countries in European competitions since Shamrock Rovers played Manchester United in 1957.  Of those 5 countries no longer exist (Czechoslovakia, East & West Germany, USSR, Yugoslavia).

Here’s a full alphabetical list with LOI clubs’ records against them.

I realise that’s not great to look at so I’ve broken it up into two more graphs.

Here’s a list of countries who LOI clubs have beaten in a knock out tie in Europe (sorted by best record)

27 countries. The LOI has a 100% knock out record against 6 countries;

• Luxembourg (Shamrock Rovers v Spora 1966/67 ECWC, Dundalk v Grevenmacher, 2010/11 Europa League)
• Bosnia & Herzegovina (St Patrick’s Athletic v NK Siroki Brijeg, 2012/13 Europa League)
• Israel (Shamrock Rovers v Bnei Yahuda, 2010/11 Europa League)
• Kazakhstan (St Patrick’s Athletic v Shakter Karagandy, 2011/12 Europa League)
• Macedonia (Shelbourne v Sloga Jugomagnat Skopje, 2000/01 Champions League)
• Russia (St Patrick’s Athletic v Krylya Sovetov Samara, 2009/10 Europa League)

While Scotland is lowest on that list with only 12.5% of ties won, the League of Ireland has won the last 2 ties between the leagues;

• Bohemians v Aberdeen, 2000/01 UEFA Cup
• Derry City v Gretna, 2006/07 UEFA Cup

Here’s a list of countries that the LOI has never beaten in UEFA knock out ties (sorted by worst record) 

Yet to win against 25 countries (20 current nations) and no surprise to see European club giants like England, Germany and Spain in there. 

There are only 5 European nations that LOI clubs have lsot every game to though

• Czech Republic (3 games – 1 draw from 6 games against Czechoslovakia)
• USSR (3 games – see below)
• Greece (4 games – Shelborune v Panathinaikos 1993/94 ECWC, Shamrock Rovers v PAOK 2011/12 Europa League)
• Liechenstein (2 games – Longford Town v Vaduz, 2004/05 UEFA Cup)
• Moldova (2 games – St Patrick’s Athletic v Zimbru Chisnau, 1999/2000 Champions League)

Here’s the combined LOI record against USSR and former USSR nations.

Combined LOI record against Yugoslavia and former Yugoslav states

Combined record against Germany, West Germany and East Germany

And the final image is combined record against Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic and Slovakia

 

I’ll be having more LOI in Europe stats as this goes on but if there’s any questions, just ask…

Quick comparison of League of Ireland versus Irish League clubs in the Setanta Cup

Lots of chatter last night and this morning after a ‘disastrous’ night for Irish League Clubs saw heavy defeats for Linfield and Glentoran away to Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers respectively. In the only completed tie in the quarter finals Cork City beat Crusaders home & away. With the other quarter final an all-League of Ireland affair it looks like for the first time all 4 semi finalists will be from the League of Ireland.

But what we’re seeing isn’t really that different from other years.  In fact only last year stands out as a ‘freak’ good year for the IL. Here’s a comparison

Of 117 ties played between the leagues the League of Ireland has won 62 (53%) compared with the Irish league 28 (24%) with a further 27 draws (23%).

Bar the first season, it’s pretty clear that LOI clubs have been dominant.  Group stages were used from 2005 to 2009/10. Since then LOI clubs lead 15-7 in knock out ties.  For statistical purposes I count games that go to penalties as draws.

Here’s the list of finals

So while the Irish League has won the first and most recent competitions, a fairer reflection of the relative standards of the two leagues (in the Setanta Sports Cup anyway) is the fact that the LOI has 10 finalists compared to the IL’s 4.  Since they introduced semi finals in 2006, the LOI leads 18-6 (a 75%/25% split).

While this year may be the first to have all 4 semi finalists from the LOI, statistically it had to happen sooner or later.