Premier Division: How the teams rated based on budget and expectations
Shelbourne manager Damien Duff celebrates with winning goal scorer Harry Wood. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
A season of overachievement for Damien Duff’s side, hitting the points target set by the centurion and finishing top of the pile.
It wasn’t his fault that established forces with greater recent history and deeper pockets faltered. They carried the endurance to sustain the unlikeliest of title wins.
By their own high standards, this felt short for Rovers, failing to win a domestic trophy for the first time since 2018.
Six times previously the leaders were usurped on the final night and Rovers did their bit, albeit a team hardly deserves to win the title with nine losses. European Conference League duties – starting against TNS on Thursday - extends their season.
Jekyll and Hyde stuff from the Saints. Jon Daly raised expectations of a title bid by winning the FAI but Garrett Kelleher sacked him six months later with the side in seventh.
Stephen Kenny’s return to the club where he began his coaching career didn’t ignite an immediate spark but their European run fused the team and they finished with a flourish.
When Derry lifted the FAI Cup in 2022, billionaire owner Philip O’Doherty put Shamrock Rovers on notice of a title bid. In each of the two years, the squad was bolstered but chances were blown to unseat Rovers.
That choker’s tag can’t continue, even if they succeed in reclaiming the Cup next week against Drogheda.
In many ways, Shelbourne apart, Galway have been the success story of the season. John Caulfield didn’t have a largesse to spend after ending their seven-year wait for a Premier Division return, keeping faith with most of his promotion team.
Astute recruits like Patrick Hickey, also from the First Division, illustrate the knowledge possessed by the manager and his sidekick Ollie Horgan.
A budget cut in pre-season was expected given the annual trading deficit of €299,000, a hit clubs like Sligo without a benefactor can’t absorb without action.
Keeping faith with John Russell was vindicated, for they matched every team and were in the race to regain their European spot up to the penultimate series.
It’s a credit to their endurance that they withstood the departure of New Zealand defender Nando Pijnaker back to his homeland in the summer.
Like Galway United, the first priority of any newly-promoted club is consolidation. Waterford were never in danger of the drop, maintaining their position in and around the top four for most of the season until a drop in form during the final series.
Fleetwood Town’s ownership as part of the multi-club model accords access to certain recruits and they have a manager in Keith Long capable of unlocking potential. It’s crucial his paymasters don’t change for the sake of it.
For all the strides the Gypsies have made in recent years with corporate responsibility, merchandising and investing in infrastructure, inconsistency has dogged both their men’s and women’s teams.
A hangover from last year’s FAI Cup final defeat wasn’t tolerated by Pat Fenlon and the director of football ditched Declan Devine for Alan Reynolds in May.
That didn’t trigger a turnaround, not helped by the manager’s brief double-jobbing with Ireland’s U21s, and their season was over once defeated at home in the FAI Cup.
Still nationally the only top-flight club operating a part-time model, as they train later in the day, but their American owners, since 12 months ago, have been gradually funding a better quality of player.
Attracting Douglas James Taylor, on loan from their sister club Walsall, in July contributed to them brushing off the challenge from neighbours Dundalk and reaching next week’s FAI Cup final.
A disastrous season on and off the pitch, with the latter undoubtedly influencing the former.
Brian Ainscough flagged European qualification as the ambition when taking ownership in December but manager Stephen O’Donnell paid for a slow start and director of football Brian Gartland was also shown the door soon after.
The Noel King experiment was short-lived and successor Jon Daly was hamstrung by financial strife. As it transpired, dedicated fans are just relieved to still have a club.
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