Tag: al finucane

1966-67 League of Ireland season

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With the club becoming a P.L.C., and a decision being taken to invest heavily in both the playing squad and their home ground of Oriel Park, the 1966-67 season ended up being a very significant one for Dundalk F.C. A squad containing only six players from the previous season (and just three survivors from their 1963 league success) propelled the club to its third League of Ireland title, with the Lilywhites finishing a full seven points clear of both Bohemians and Sligo Rovers. Victory in the League of Ireland Shield (the club’s first ever), and also the Top Four Cup, meant that it was easily Dundalk’s most successful campaign to date.

The title was won at both ends of the pitch, with the Louth club scoring more and conceding far less than any other side. The defence was marshalled by Welsh player-coach Alan Fox, and a newly-assembled forward line included players like Ben Hannigan, Tony O’Connell and Paddy Turner. Northern Irishman Danny Hale (who finished as the league’s joint top scorer), and former Bradford City and Huddersfield Town forward Derek Stokes (who scored an extra-time winner in the Top Four Cup final replay win over Bohemians) also became key players, and the club could easily have picked up even more honours, having made the final of both the Dublin City Cup and Leinster Senior Cup, and the last four of the F.A.I. Cup. Dundalk also won the first ever edition of the ‘Donegan Cup’, after a 5-2 aggregate win over local rivals Drogheda.

Action from what seems to be the first Top Four Cup final meeting between Dundalk and Bohemians

Shamrock Rovers knocked Dundalk out of the F.A.I. Cup at the semi-final stage, and the Hoops would go on to win the trophy for the fourth consecutive year, after a 3-2 win over Gerry Doyle’s St. Patrick’s Athletic. Goals from Frank O’Neill, Mick Leech (the 18-year old had freshened up a somewhat stagnant attack since joining a few months previously) and Billy Dixon did the trick for the Milltown club, in the first ever final to be shown live on television (the novelty factor meant that just 12,000 attended the game itself). Goals from Mick Kearin and Frank O’Neill gave them a 2-1 win over Dundalk in the final of the Dublin City Cup, but it was the Hoops’ European exploits this year that really caught the imagination. Following a 1-1 draw with German giants Bayern Munich (whose side included Franz Beckenbauer, Sepp Maier and Gerd Müller) in the Cup Winners’ Cup at Dalymount Park, Rovers fell two goals behind in the return leg in the Olympic Stadium, before strikes from Bobby Gilbert and player-manager Liam Tuohy gave them the lead in the tie on the away goals rule. They were denied what would have been a truly historic victory when Gerd Müller snatched a late winner for the Germans, who would eventually go on to lift the trophy at the end of the season.

Rovers’ goal in the first match against Bayern had been scored by Billy Dixon, who had previously netted against the German side for Drumcondra in 1962. Having also scored during Drumcondra’s historic tie against Stævnet Odense that same year, his total of four European goals for Rovers this season (he netted three in the 8-2 aggregate win over Spora Luxembourg) saw him become the highest-scoring League of Ireland player in European competition (a title he would retain until the 2000s). While he also scored the winner in this season’s F.A.I. Cup final, Dixon would accumulate a surprisingly low tally of 34 league goals over the course of a 12-year League of Ireland career. Frank O’Neill’s excellent form on the wing this season, meanwhile, saw him hold down a position with the Irish national team, and his goal in a Euro 1968 qualifying win against Turkey at Dalymount Park remains the last competitive international goal scored by a home-based player.

Bohemians’ strong showing this season (it happened to be their first runners-up finish since 1929) was down to some more brilliant work by Seán Thomas, who had had to contend with the loss of as many as nine first team players from the previous campaign. On-field leader Willie Browne had retired, Mick Kearin was now with Shamrock Rovers, Kevin Murray and Larry Gilmore were now with Dundalk and Jimmy Conway and Turlough O’Connor had both transferred to Fulham. Players like Paul Flood, Eamonn Carroll and Anthony Swan (goalkeeper and brother of former Drumcondra netminder Maurice) really stepped up this season, however, with a Flood goal against Dundalk allowing the Gypsies to retain the Leinster Senior Cup, and a Republic of Ireland amateur international against England in March seeing six Bohemian players take to the field (Paul Cahill, Tom Kelly and Ben O’Sullivan appeared along with Swan, Flood and Carroll). Seán Thomas announced his shock departure from the club at the end of the season, however, signing a two-year contract to take over a Boston club in the new American soccer league.

Another established League of Ireland coach about to leave for pastures new was Limerick player-manager Ewan Fenton, who decided to take on a fresh challenge at Linfield. The Scotsman had been at the Markets Field since 1960, and his last season had been another good one for the Shannonsiders, with the club having been in the mix for the title at one stage. Local player and future club legend Joe O’Mahony had made a great impact in his first season, but this was the campaign where Al Finucane really emerged as a standout player in the League of Ireland. A composed and elegant defender (he was also more than capable of playing further forward) whose positioning and distribution were among his best attributes, Finucane was called into the Republic of Ireland squad for a Euro qualifying game against Turkey, and acquitted himself especially well after being deployed as a sweeper on his debut in Ankara. A home game against a strong Czechoslovakia team was a difficult one for Finucane, but he would go on to win a further nine international caps, and was recognised by the Soccer Writers’ Association of Ireland as their ‘Personality of the Year’ for the 1966-67 season.

Defending champions Waterford faced disruption this season due to injuries (Jimmy McGeough missed a large portion of the season), and also because of uncertainty over the status of cross-channel players Johnny Matthews and Peter Thomas (both natives of Coventry who had come through the youth system of their local club). Matthews had been part of the previous season’s success but left Waterford in October after being unable to agree terms, before finally re-signing for the club a few weeks later, this time as a full-time professional. Goalkeeper Thomas made a good impact after joining Paddy Coad’s side for a short loan spell, but after the club had struggled to adequately replace him, he was convinced to return to Kilcohan Park in late January on a two-year full-time contract. Thomas then played for the League of Ireland against the Irish League in Belfast in March and prevented the scoreline from getting out of hand, while Matthews scored 12 league goals (including a couple of great individual efforts) for Waterford to finish as the club’s top scorer.

Another complicated transfer saga involved former Shelbourne winger Joey Wilson, who left Derry City after three successful seasons to sign for Drogheda F.C. Shelbourne claimed, however, that Derry had given them first refusal if Wilson was ever to return to the League of Ireland, but with the transfer being deemed a legitimate one by the F.A.I., Drogheda insisted that the player was theirs. The Boynesiders relaxed their position once it became obvious that Wilson no longer wanted to go through with the move, but with a £600 transfer fee (which Wilson himself claimed was “excessive”) being sought and Shelbourne not in a strong financial position after a season towards the foot of the table, Wilson eventually agreed to become a Drogheda player for the 1967-68 season.

The previous season had seen League of Ireland crowds receive something of a boost, and this positive pattern continued for 1966-67, with a number of clubs registering record attendances during this campaign. 14,000 were at Oriel Park for Dundalk’s 2-0 win over Shamrock Rovers that all but guaranteed their first League of Ireland Shield, and there was a crowd of 10,000 present when the two clubs met in the Dublin City Cup final at Dalymount Park ten days later. Sligo Rovers (with their defence being brilliantly led by David Pugh) had kept pace with Dundalk for the first dozen or so league games, and a 2-1 win over Shamrock Rovers on the 15th of January was seen by the biggest crowd ever at the Showgrounds. On the very same day, a record Richmond Park crowd watched St. Patrick’s Athletic beat Bohemians 3-2, while at a packed Markets Field, Dundalk beat Limerick by the same scoreline to put a big dent in the Shannonsiders’ league chances (Limerick did at least have another great crowd for the visit of Sligo Rovers a week later, to help them meet the costs of a rent that had more than doubled since the stadium had been renovated). February then saw Drogheda’s Lourdes Stadium record its biggest attendance to date, as neighbours Dundalk left with a 3-1 win, despite the best efforts of ex-Lilywhite players Jimmy Hasty and Leo O’Reilly.

As had been the case in the 1950s, bigger crowds sometimes led to more crowd trouble, and following on from a disturbance at the end of their Kilcohan Park meeting in 1965, a Shamrock Rovers v Waterford game at Milltown in late 1966 saw some outbreaks of violence in the stands. A more notable flare-up took place at a Sligo Rovers v Dundalk match at the Showgrounds towards the end of the season (the Lilywhites had not quite been confirmed as champions), when a late equaliser for the home team saw some supporters overcelebrate by invading the pitch and attacking members of the away team. The referee decided to abandon the match with a couple of minutes still to be played, and while Sligo requested a replay, the 1-1 scoreline was allowed to stand.

Even though some of the criticism that had been aimed at clubs’ attacking play in recent years persisted, the 1966-67 season was definitely a more productive and profitable one for League of Ireland forward lines. Dundalk’s brand new attack took a few weeks to “gel”, but the goals soon started flowing freely, and it was a similar story in Sligo, though it could be said that their full-time, mostly cross-channel attack faded after making a very bright start. Waterford scored a lot of goals in the second half of the championship (almost earning themselves a spot in the Top Four Cup) and they were also involved in a lot of high-scoring thrillers this season. Cork Celtic stumbled upon an English forward called Carl Davenport, who scored in his first nine league appearances, and the man that Davenport had been brought in to replace was the scorer of one of a number of quickfire hat-tricks this season. Austin Noonan took just six minutes to score all three in Cork Hibernians’ 3-2 shield win over Sligo at the Showgrounds, before Hibs themselves were on the receiving end of a similar feat by Mick Jordan of Shelbourne at Flower Lodge. Derek Stokes took just seven minutes to score three in Dundalk’s F.A.I. Cup win over Tramore Athletic, and while the best the league itself could offer was an 18-minute hat-trick by Cork Celtic’s John McCarthy, the stage has been set for something extraordinary that was to come.

League of Ireland 1966-67


PWDLFAPts
Dundalk221543541934
Bohemians221237452727
Sligo Rovers221156372927
Limerick22967312924
Waterford2211110534823
St. Patrick’s Athletic22859495121
Shamrock Rovers228410313120
Drumcondra22688353820
Cork Hibernians227510313919
Drogheda227510314219
Cork Celtic228311305219
Shelbourne224315325411

European Competition (all home legs at Dalymount Park) : European Cup Preliminary Round, Waterford 1-6 FC Vorwärts Berlin, FC Vorwärts Berlin 6-0 Waterford European Cup Winners’ Cup First Round, Shamrock Rovers 4-1 Spora Luxembourg, Spora Luxembourg 1-4 Shamrock Rovers. Second Round, Shamrock Rovers 1-1 Bayern Munich, Bayern Munich 3-2 Shamrock Rovers Inter Cities Fairs Cup First Round, Drumcondra 0-2 Eintracht Frankfurt, Eintracht Frankfurt 6-1 Drumcondra

League top scorers : Johnny Brooks Sligo Rovers, 15 Danny Hale Dundalk, 15 Ben Hannigan Dundalk, 14

S.W.A.I. Personality of the Year : Al Finucane, Limerick

Representative matches : Scottish League 6-0 League of Ireland, Irish League 3-1 League of Ireland

1961-62 League of Ireland season

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This season’s league race turned into a tussle between a free-scoring Cork Celtic side (who had four players in double figures) and a Shelbourne team that had shown an uncanny ability to grind out results. With both clubs finishing on 35 points (they drew 1-1 in front of a crowd of 10,000 at Turner’s Cross on the last day of the season), Shels and Cork Celtic contested a Dalymount Park play-off to decide the 1962 championship. A Ben Hannigan strike that came back off a post and went in off Cork’s Frankie McCarthy was enough to ensure a seventh league title for the Dubliners, and it meant that in spite of possessing a far superior goal average (ex-Limerick forward George Lynam had contributed ten goals, and centre-forward Donal Leahy was in the league’s top three scorers for the sixth year in a row), Celtic were condemned to a third runners-up finish in four seasons.

Shels would go on to defeat the Corkmen in the final of the Top Four Cup, and had been overwhelming favourites for the F.A.I. Cup final (which took place a few days before the league play-off) as well, only to be trounced 4-1 by Shamrock Rovers, with Tommy Hamilton and Paddy Ambrose each scoring twice. Shels had won each of the Dublin clubs’ three meetings during the season (and subsequently won a Top Four semi-final 4-1), including a 6-2 victory just nine days before the final, but an illness contracted by a number of their players from a vaccination ahead of a League of Ireland representative trip to Italy had disrupted the club’s preparations. The team that all other League of Ireland clubs loved to hate, therefore, now had some 14 Blue Riband victories to their name, and Tommy Hamilton’s great performance in light of yet another struggle with the Cunningham family (they had seen fit to drop him from the semi-final line-up, only to reconsider their decision after the fans had strenuously objected) saw him being awarded the Irish Soccer Writers’ “Personality of the Year” award.

Shelbourne’s 2-1 win over Rovers at Milltown on the 7th of January was also the first League of Ireland match to play host to a ‘Teilifís Éireann‘ camera crew, with the new television channel having been launched on New Year’s Day, 1962. Goals from Ben Hannigan and Eric Barber saw Shels defeat a Rovers team that featured future Hoops legend Frank O’Neill, who had returned to Ireland following a three-year spell at Arsenal. O’Neill had also guested with Rovers on their summer trip to the U.S.A., where they had become the first (and only ever) League of Ireland club to participate in the recently established ‘International Soccer League’ (they won one and drew two of their seven matches to finish seventh in their group of eight). The Rovers line-up this season also included brothers Eamon and Tommy Farrell, both half-backs, who were the father and uncle of future Hollywood film actor Colin.

Newcomer Hannigan, meanwhile, had arguably been the most consistent and effective forward in a Shelbourne team whose success had mostly been built around a great defence, brilliantly led by Freddie Strahan (Shels had allowed star goalkeeper Finbarr Flood leave to join Scottish club Greenock Morton during the season). Hannigan was one of a number of future League of Ireland stars who debuted during the 1961-62 season, with Johnny Fullam being another notable member of the Shamrock Rovers team this year. Inside-left Al Finucane and goalkeeper Kevin Fitzpatrick both made their debuts for Limerick, and although Finucane performed brilliantly, scoring eight league goals, he would go on to become more famous as a centre-half. Irish amateur international defender Willie Browne joined Bohemians from U.C.D., while Noel O’Mahony made his debut for Cork Hibernians in January, and would be a familiar face in League of Ireland football on Leeside for many years to come.

Cork Hibernians had been the club to lead the League of Ireland Shield table for most of the way, and so were in with a great chance of claiming their first national honour ahead of a last-day meeting with second-placed Drumcondra at Tolka Park. Goals from Jimmy Morrissey and Tommy Kinsella gave Drums a 2-1 win, however, and with it the club’s first shield success in over a decade. Since winning the last two editions of the “round robin” Dublin City Cup in the early 1950s, Drums had appeared in eight of the tournament’s 10 finals since, and they continued this pattern in 1961, with a rematch of the previous year’s decider against Cork Celtic. The issue took a little bit of time to resolve, though, with the clubs’ first meeting on 1st September ending in a 2-2 draw, and a replay in early November also finishing level at three goals apiece (ex-Cork United and Belfast Celtic star Liam O’Neill took over as Celtic coach ahead of this game, and the club lost their first two league matches before turning their form around). Drumcondra decided to fly to Cork for the second replay a few weeks later, but goals from Austin Noonan and Donie O’Leary gave Celtic a 2-0 win and their first Dublin City Cup, in what was the first match of the season to be played at Turner’s Cross (it was also their first “win” in that season’s competition, having reached the final by virtue of two “corners” victories in the earlier rounds). Cork Celtic had been sharing the Mardyke with Cork Hibernians during the early months, but an announcement by University College Cork that the ground wouldn’t be available for League of Ireland football beyond the current season prompted them to refocus their attention on trying to purchase Turner’s Cross from the F.A.I.

Drumcondra had been caught up in some controversy at the very beginning of the season, when they instigated a misuse of the substitute rule during their 3-0 L.F.A. President’s Cup win over St. Patrick’s Athletic at Dalymount Park. An injury to centre-half Sean Smyth saw him being replaced by Tony Nesbitt, but when Nesbitt got injured not long afterwards, the Tolka Park side readied Tommy Kinsella to come on in his stead. Despite the fact that only a goalkeeper substitution was available to Drums, the referee and an L.F.A. official allowed the second “outfield” change to be made. Dalymount Park itself, meanwhile, had yet another memorable moment later in the season, when the Phibsboro venue’s first ever floodlit football match took place. A ‘Bohemians XI’ (with guest players including the likes of Eric Barber and Tommy Hamilton) welcomed Arsenal for a midweek friendly in March, with the Londoners winning a high-scoring encounter by eight goals to three (the match had been played in poor weather conditions; although not as severe as the previous year, bad weather had been a feature of the 1961-62 season as a whole).

The previous season’s standout player, Dan McCaffrey, scored the first Drumcondra goal in their President’s Cup win, but injuries and a loss of form saw him struggle to hold down a place in the team as the season wore on. He eventually moved to Waterford and rediscovered some of his sharpness, but by the time the 1962-63 season rolled around McCaffrey would be on the move again, this time to Cork Hibernians. (Waterford had struggled towards the foot of the table and would have fared even worse if not for the brilliance of goalkeeper Tommy Taylor, whose displays grabbed many headlines this season.) Another of the 1960-61 season’s stars, Jimmy Hasty, also found himself on the sidelines for most of this campaign, but in spite of his injury problems, the Dundalk centre-forward still managed to register eight league goals.

The advent of a new European competition, the European Cup Winners’ Cup, saw St. Patrick’s Athletic acting as Ireland’s inaugural representatives, but unfortunately, with limited success. Meanwhile, a new cross-border tournament, the North-South Cup, had kicked off towards the end of the 1960-61 season, but due to fixture congestion for both the northern and southern-based clubs (St. Pat’s, Shels, Drums and Shamrock Rovers had each met Irish League opposition in a two-legged quarter-final), the unfinished tournament had spilled over into this year’s campaign. No League of Ireland club reached the first final (which took place between Linfield and Glentoran in early 1962), and a new edition of the competition commenced before the end of the current season, with Dundalk joining the other four southern clubs in a slightly revised 10-team version of the tournament. The competition again took place in fits and starts, however, and by the time Shelbourne lost the second decider to Glenavon in May of 1963, clubs’ appetite for the North-South Cup had been more or less exhausted.

League of Ireland 1961-62


PWDLFAPts

Shelbourne221552552335*

Cork Celtic221633712435

Shamrock Rovers221435513231

St. Patrick’s Athletic221138484625

Cork Hibernians22886373625**

Limerick221057413424**

Drumcondra22868454022

Dundalk22859423621

Bohemians226511404617

Waterford227312394917

Transport22231729767

Sligo Rovers22131831875

* Shelbourne beat Cork Celtic 1-0 in play-off for title

** Cork Hibernians awarded one point from Limerick

European Competition : European Cup Preliminary Round, FC Nuremberg (West Germany) 5-0 Drumcondra, Drumcondra 1-4 FC Nuremberg European Cup Winners’ Cup Preliminary Round (second leg at Tolka Park), Dunfermline Athletic 4-1 St. Patrick’s Athletic, St. Patrick’s Athletic 0-4 Dunfermline Athletic

League top scorers : Eddie Bailham Shamrock Rovers, 21 Donal Leahy Cork Celtic, 18 Eric Barber Shelbourne, 15 Austin Noonan Cork Celtic, 15

S.W.A.I. Personality of the Year : Tommy Hamilton, Shamrock Rovers

Representative matches : League of Ireland 1-1 Scottish League, English League 5-2 League of Ireland, League of Ireland 0-3 Italian League, Irish League 3-1 League of Ireland, Italian League 6-0 League of Ireland