Salthill Devon F.C.

Salthill Devon
Full name Salthill Devon Football Club
Founded 1977
Ground Drom Clubhouse
Ground Capacity 1000
League Galway & District League
2013/14 3rd
Website Club home page

Salthill Devon Football Club is an Irish football who formerly had a team in the League of Ireland First Division. The club hails from Salthill and play their home matches at Drom Clubhouse. Club colours are light blue and white stripes and their current manager is Tony Mannion. In November 2009, Salthill Devon won promotion from the A Championship into the League of Ireland First Division. Despite having resigned from the League of Ireland, the club continue to field over 20 teams ranging from underage to senior.[1]

History

Salthill Devon were formed in 1977 when two clubs, Salthill Athletic and Devon Celtic combined to form a new club. In its relatively short history, the club has progressed gradually, and this can be seen in the form of the state-of-the-art Drom Clubhouse Facility, which has seen the enrichment of many sports in the area and also in such tournaments as The Umbro Galway Cup.

The club is currently seen as integral in providing youth in the West with an opportunity to begin their careers and give them a solid foundation in football using top class facilities and UEFA qualified coaches. Numerous players have benefitted from this and gone on to the professional ranks, including former Crystal Palace player Rory Ginty and current Aberdeen's Joe Shaughnessy, Sligo Rovers' John Russell, Galway's Vinny Faherty, Shamrock Rovers B manager Colin Hawkins, Dundalk's Daryl Horgan and Limerick's Stephen Folan.

In 2008, the club played its first season in the newly formed League of Ireland third tier The A Championship, meaning that they had an opportunity to gain promotion to the League of Ireland First Division for the first time. In 2008 they finished bottom of their group but 2009 saw a complete reversal as they comfortably won their group. Salthill narrowly lost out in the A Championship final to Shamrock Rovers in stoppage time. However having topped their group they qualified for a promotion/relegation play-off against the bottom team in the First Division, Kildare County.

In November 2009, Kildare County informed the FAI that the club was not in a position to fulfill the relegation / promotion play-off matches. As a result of this decision, Salthill Devon were deemed to have won promotion from the Newstalk A Championship into the League of Ireland First Division, pending the licensing process.

In February 2010 Salthill Devon were granted a first division license. On 4 April, Charlie Burke recorded Salthill's first Airtricity League goal in a 2–1 away defeat to Wexford Youths, their fifth game of the season.[2]

During 2013, discussions were held with Galway clubs, Mervue United and Salthill Devon along with the Galway Football Association and GUST, about having one unified team representing the county of Galway at the top level of Irish football as it was Football Association of Ireland's wish that one club should represent the city of Galway.[3] In late 2013, Galway F.C. was established.[4]

Notable Former Players

Honours

Winners (4): 1989–90, 1990–91, 1991–92, 2009–10

References

  1. ↑ http://www.salthilldevon.ie/about/
  2. ↑ http://www.extratime.ie/fixtures/detail/11919/1/
  3. ↑ Independent report on Galway senior football presented
  4. ↑ Football's comin' home — compromise reached as Galway FC applies to league

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, January 26, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.