Dundalk F.C.

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Dundalk

Full name

Dundalk Football Club

Nickname(s)

"Lilywhites"

Founded

1903

Ground

Oriel Park, Dundalk,
County Louth

Capacity

11,000

Manager

John Gill

League

Eircom First Division

2006

2ed





Home colours





Away colours

Dundalk FC is an Irish football club from Dundalk, County Louth, that play in the Football League of Ireland. Club colours are black shorts and white jerseys, from which the club gets its nickname the Lilywhites.

1 History
2 Current squad
3 Honours
4 Club Records
5 External links

[edit] History

The first newspaper reports of organised football in Dundalk appeared in the Dundalk Democrat on 17 December 1892, when a report of a match involving Dundalk’s 1-0 defeat of Institution 2nd XI from nine days previous was reported.

Football gradually took a foothold in a fledgling town which held strong ties to both the military and the railway infrastructure given its location between Dublin and Belfast, as well as links to local ports. Affiliated to the Leinster Football Association before the turn of the century, a team from Dundalk (commonly known as Rovers) took its place in the Leinster Senior League in 1900/01 for the first time and the club continued in existence (as the town’s most established club) until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

Other clubs began to make their presence felt in the locality, and one in particular, the Great Northern Railway (GNR) Association Club, founded in September 1903, spawned the modern-day Dundalk FC. Located at the Athletic Grounds, the club played in black and amber-striped kit. The Dundalk GNR featured in the Dundalk & District League from 1905/06, and although media coverage remained patchy, the club were present until 1914.

Sports coverage was reinstated in the local media in 1919, with the Dundalk & District League re-established in time to start a competition during the 1919/20 season. Included among the teams was a selection representing the GNR, a club that also featured in the Newry League. But political change was also to play its part following the formation of the FAI in Dublin to govern football in the Irish Free State leaving the IFA to take control of matters in the six north-eastern counties.

The GNR were not involved in the fledgling Irish Free State League which kicked-off at the start of the 1921/22 season involving Dublin-based clubs only all of which has stepped up from the Leinster Senior League. This ultimately opened the way for the GNR to move up to the Leinster Senior League, the only club from outside of the capital to compete in the 1922/23 season. The club’s first game was played on 7 October 1922 versus Inchicore United and ended in a 2-1 reverse. But the club established itself in the top rank, and a third place finish at the end of the 1925/26 season paved the way for the club’s election to the ten-team Free State Senior League at the expense of Pioneers and ahead of Bendigo and Drumcondra, the two clubs that had headed the GNR in their final season in the Leinster Senior League.

Within four seasons, the club had moved from the Dundalk & District League through the Leinster Senior League and into the Free State Senior League. Now they would have to move quickly to establish their position in the elite league that included Shelbourne, Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers.

The club, now known as Dundalk GNR and continuing in the black and amber strip from its pre-War origins, travelled to Cork to face Fordsons in their opening match on 21 August 1926. The match ended in a 2-1 defeat, but the most successful club outside of Dublin had now taken its first step in a history that has had its fair share of fortune and fame.

Renamed Dundalk FC in 1930, the club became the first provincial team to win the League Championship when lifting the title in 1932-33. The club has unbroken membership of the League Of Ireland, a record shared with only two other members from that time, Bohs and Shamrock Rovers. It has a rich history, with almost 50 trophy wins, including 9 League Championships, 1 First Division and has contested 14 FAI Cup Finals. In 2002 it won the FAI Cup for the 9th time. Almost 100 of its players have gained representative honours for Ireland and the League of Ireland.

In the 1970s and 1980s the club had an outstanding record in European competition at its home venue Oriel Park (Carrick Road, Dundalk), being undefeated at home for five years playing against top opposition from PSV Eindhoven, Hajduk Split, Celtic, Porto and Tottenham Hotspur. It moved to its home venue, Oriel Park, in 1936 and the ground attendance record of 21,000 was set in 1979 on the occasion of the club’s European Champion Clubs' Cup second round tie against Celtic. The stadium, which now features a 1,600-seater stand, has hosted many memorable games including visits from Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, Ajax and Crvena Zvezda (Red Star).

Since 1999 and in conjunction with Irish League side Linfield, Belfast, the club has been engaged in a Peace and Reconciliation programme, the Dunfield project, which through the medium of football is facilitating the coming together of young people from the Dundalk and Belfast communities.

In February 2005 the club announced a major programme for a complete revamp of Oriel Park, which includes the conversion of the pitch to an all-weather surface (the first Irish club to do so and the first club in the world to use the licensed FIFA2 surface for competitive league games). Further plans are being made to upgrade the main stand, changing areas and bar facilities. The ultimate aim is to restore the club’s standing amongst the premier clubs in Ireland.

The club operated as a co-operative with teams competing from schoolboy level in Dublin-based leagues to girls and ladies teams as well as the first team which competes in the eircom League. However as of August 2006 the club has been taken over by local business man Gerry Mathews.

Dundalk have won the playoffs over two legs by three goals to two against Waterford United

On December 12, 2006, Dundalk were monumentally shafted by the FAI when it was announced that Galway United, who finished behind them in the league and who didn't even make the playoff that Dundalk won, would be in the Premier Division in 2007.

[edit] Current squad

Manager:

John Gill

Goalkeepers

Chris Bennion
Neil Gallagher

Defenders

John Flanagan
Shane Grimes
Simon Kelly
Aidan Lynch
Paul Marney
Brian Kelly
Conor McMahon**
Ben Whelehan

Midfielders

Robbie Dunne
Colin Finan
Seamus McCabe
Christopher Doran
Keith Dunne
Cathal O'Connor
Ray Scully
Vinny Perth

Forwards

Ciaran Hughes
Philip Hughes
Trevor Vaughan
Wayne Griffin
Anthony Flood

** Out on loan

[edit] Honours

League: 9 wins
- 1932-33, 1962-63, 1966-67, 1975-76, 1978-79, 1981-82, 1987-88, 1990-91, 1994-95
League First Division: 1 win
- 2000-01
FAI Cup: 9 wins
- 1942, 1949, 1952, 1958, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1988, 2002
League Cup: 4 wins
- 1977-78, 1980-81, 1986-87, 1989-90
League of Ireland Shield: 2 wins
- 1966-67, 1971-72
Top Four Cup: 2 wins
- 1963-64, 1966-67
Leinster Cup: 6 wins
- 1950-51, 1960-61, 1970-71, 1973-74, 1976-77, 1977-78
President's Cup: 9 wins
- 1930-31, 1951-52, 1963-64, 1964-65, 1979-80, 1980-81, 1981-82, 1988-89, 1989-90
Dublin City Cup: 5 wins
- 1937-38, 1942-43, 1948-49, 1967-68, 1968-69
Inter City Cup: 1 win
- 1942

[edit] Club Records

Appearance records
- All competitions: 580, Tommy McConville
- League: 400, Martin Lawlor
- European competition: 19, Tommy McConville
Goalscoring records
- Career
  - All competitions: 143, Joey Donnelly
  - League: 70, Joey Donnelly
- Single season
  - All competitions: 43, Joe Sayers, 1935-36
  - League: 21, Philip Hughes, 2006
Record League victory: 9-0
- v. Jacobs, 1932 (home)
- v. Shelbourne, 1980 (home)
Record League loss: 1-9
- v. Limerick, 1944 (away)
Best defensive League season: 13 goals conceded in 30 games (0.43 per game), 1979-80
Best offensive League season: 64 goals scored in 22 games (2.91 per game), 1930-31
Record League sequences:
- Consecutive wins: 10, 1967-68
- Consecutive losses: 11, 1998-99 (last 8 games) and 1999-00 (first 3 games)
- Consecutive draws: 10, 2005
- Longest undefeated run: 22 games, 1990-91 (16 games) through 1991-92 (6 games)
- Longest without a win: 19 games, 2002-03 (10 games) through 2003 (9 games)

[edit] External links

Football League of Ireland 2006
Premier League
Bohemians \| Bray Wanderers \| Cork City \| Derry City \| Drogheda United \| Longford Town
Shelbourne \| Sligo Rovers \| St. Patrick's Athletic \| UCD \| Waterford United \|
First Division
Athlone Town \| Cobh Ramblers \| Dundalk \| Finn Harps \| Galway United \| Kildare County
Kilkenny City \| Limerick \| Monaghan United \| Shamrock Rovers