Champions Again: The story of Shamrock Rovers' fourth title winning season in a row
FOUR IN A ROW: Shamrock Rovers’ manager Stephen Bradley celebrates Aaron Greene scoring their first goal late in the game. Pic Credit ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne
An indisputable adage in sport is the inability of a league table to lie and Shamrock Rovers are fully deserving of their title with two games to spare.
They’ve been home and hosed earlier during this four-year spell of dominance and this is the year they made up most ground to prevail.
It’s difficult to comprehend that heading into the first international break in late March, the Hoops languished in eight place of a 10-team table.
The unlikely sight of deadly rivals Bohemians leading the table 10 points into the distance added to the peculiarity.
“You end up where you deserve in any league campaign,” insisted Stephen Bradley as the early scrutiny enveloped. “We’ll talk about that in November.”
Prescient comments by a manager, still only 38 and now in a unique club for his four-in-a-row accomplishment.
The only previous team to rack up that record, also Rovers between 1984 and 1987, were led by Jim McLaughlin but player-manager in the final season, whereas Bradley has been a constant.
Derry City’s President Cup win over Rovers didn’t yield points but offered hope for the neutral of a genuine title race. What was to come over the first sixth of the season intensified that talk.
Graham Burke’s opener in their opener at Sligo Rovers indicated normality would ensure but a red card for Pico Lopes played into the hosts nicking a stoppage-time equaliser.
Another late leveller and another 1-1 draw came seven days later, this time against a Drogheda United team that belied their part-time status to trouble the kingpins.
Building work at Tallaght delayed their first home game but it was a return to forget as Derry City won 2-1. The northerners’ first victory at Tallaght since 2017 was described as a statement win by jubilant goalkeeper Brian Maher, a springboard to pursue a first title since 1997.
Cork City added to the Rovers jitters a few days later by soaring into a 4-2 lead at the same venue, only to concede twice late on. Two further draws against Shelbourne and St Patrick’s Athletic had the naysayers circling.
Bradley was calmness personified. “Everyone reacts to results and I understand that, but if we throw everything we have done for five or six years out the window for one result, do you really believe in what you are doing?”
The month ended with their first win, a 4-0 thumping of Dundalk at Oriel Park.
Breaking that duck in Louth was the catalyst for regaining the form of champions.
Rovers went on an unbeaten run of 10 games, winning all bar a 2-2 draw against Shels. Their 2-0 win at Dalymount Park had the dual function of breathing life into their title defence and clipping the wings of high-flying Bohs.
A mixed month began with three points in Derry but the loss of goalkeeper Alan Mannus would be costly. Home wins over Bohs and St Pat’s were crucial in the context of title rivals but back-to-back defeats to Drogheda United and Cork City at the other end prevented a breakaway.
The latter result in the irrelevant amid sick abuse Bradley received about his ill son from two people after the Turner’s Cross game. Cork City took immediate action.
Four wins and a draw allayed fears of a mini-crisis seeping in but indiscipline remained a worry. Seven red cards by the midway point of the campaign stretched the squad – as did another Jack Byrne injury just as the playmaker looked back to his best – but Bradley resisted the urge to recruit with the Champions League campaign looming.
On the last day of the month, the leaders suffered a set-back when Dundalk struck twice in the second half without reply.
St Pat’s, now under Jon Daly, whacked UCD on the same night to join Derry City in the title mix.
The month dominated by Cup ties – all scarcely memorable. Before tackling Europe and the FAI, their bogey team Drogheda eked out a draw to stall their gallop.
There would be no repeat of the 2022 progression to the second round of the Champions League – a golden ticket to riches – as Icelandic outfit Breidablik won both legs, 1-0 and 2-1.
Any prospect of a double was torpedoed at the first attempt as Dundalk repeated their Oriel Park trick in the FAI Cup and the forfeit for the Champions League exit was meeting Hungarian giants Ferencváros.
They strolled to a 6-0 aggregate triumph.
Only three league games in the month and only one blemish, That was failing to see out a lead at a throbbing Tolka Park, enabling Gavin Molloy to pinch a stoppage-time point with a late header.
Success over Cork City and crucially Dundalk were steady rather than spectacular, placing the onus on rivals to keep pace.
Derry looked the ones capable of asking questions of the Hoops, winning games in hand to close the gap for the visit of the Dubliners to Foyleside.
That was on course to be trimmed to a solitary point when Cameron McJannet forged them ahead on the hour but a soft foul conceded by Shane McEleney led to his dismissal and the conversion of the penalty by the victim, Graham Burke.
That point, added to the nine from the other three matches, left Derry in their wake.
Between free weekends for Cup rounds, the international break and a postponed trip to Cork City, Rovers had a four-week break before hosting Drogheda last Monday.
The curse against Drogs was buried by five goals from five scorers, propelling them into command for completing the deal against their south Dublin rivals and latest challengers.
With the mark of champions, they didn’t disappoint.
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