Tag: st. james's gate

1943-44 League of Ireland season

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Given that there were now just eight sides in the League of Ireland, the Dublin City Cup reverted to a round robin format at the start of the 1943-44 season. The race for that competition boiled down to a match between Cork United and Drumcondra (who were tied on nine points after six games), with a 4-1 Mardyke victory ensuring that the cup came to Leeside for the very first time. The win appeared to augur well for United’s chances of a fourth successive league title, but having capitalised on a last day slip-up by Shamrock Rovers (who had scored twice as many goals as Shels had) to win their first League of Ireland Shield since 1930, Shelbourne went on to capture their first league championship in 13 years (their fourth in all) in 1944.

Reaching only their second cup final in 20 years, Shels were denied a domestic treble in a thrilling game by local rivals Shamrock Rovers, who eventually triumphed on a scoreline of 3-2. Shels were controversially awarded a penalty late on when a Rovers defender handled a ball that already appeared to have crossed the line, but with the subsequent spot-kick being missed, Rovers held out to record an incredible ninth cup success. The competition was notable this year for the absence of any non-league teams due to the suspension of the F.A.I. Intermediate Cup, resulting in the first round, and subsequent semi-final ties, all being contested over two legs.

A change of club colours from red-and-white to blue-and-white seemed to be advantageous, as having failed to finish above fifth in any of their six previous league seasons, Limerick (both they and Shels had remained unbeaten at home, albeit through just seven league games) claimed the runners-up position in 1944, with the title only being clinched after Shelbourne’s 5-3 victory in their delayed last fixture against Shamrock Rovers. St. James’s Gate finished bottom of the table this year, and with the league refusing to grant their application for re-election, Brideville returned to the league fray after their one-year absence. The club who had won the inaugural League of Ireland would not compete in the league again for another 46 years.

League of Ireland 1943-44

PWDLFAPts
Shelbourne14932322221
Limerick14842341920
Shamrock Rovers14554382715
Dundalk14635211915
Cork United14626362814
Drumcondra14626242814
Bohemians14428253210
St. James’s Gate14111212473

League top scorers : Seanie McCarthy Cork United, 16 Paddy Coad Shamrock Rovers, 15 Paddy O’Leary Limerick, 15

Representative matches : League of Ireland 3-4 Northern Regional League, Northern Regional League 2-2 League of Ireland

1939-40 League of Ireland season

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The new campaign would again see no change to the constituents of the league, although Cork City, due to financial difficulties, would be forced to re-arrange themselves as Cork United (who took on the playing record and fixtures of the defunct club) midway through the season. Aided by the presence of Irish internationals Joe O’Reilly, Paddy Bradshaw and Mattie Geoghegan, St. James’s Gate were the dominant league force for this year, claiming a second league title six points ahead of Shamrock Rovers, to deny the Milltown club a three-in-a-row. A record crowd of 38,509, meanwhile, watched the latter side defeat Sligo Rovers 3-0 to hand the Connacht club their second F.A.I. Cup final defeat in a row.

Drumcondra and Shelbourne had met to decide this season’s first piece of silverware, with each club seeking to put their name on the Dublin City Cup for the first time. The previous December (1938) had seen a mid-table league game between the sides almost have to be abandoned after a melee broke out involving opposing players and supporters, but this Dalymount Park meeting passed off without further incident, goals from O’Doherty (2) and O’Brien giving Drums a comfortable 3-0 win. An extremely competitive League of Ireland Shield finished with just two points separating the top seven, but holders Bohemians, along with Sligo Rovers, finished clear of the rest on 14 points each. It would mean yet another shield play-off for the Gypsies, and it was fixed for Shelbourne Park on a Wednesday in early January, with the two clubs also due to play a league match at the Showgrounds three days in advance. Sligo won the league game 3-2 after almost allowing a three-goal lead to completely slip, but having taken a 2-0 half-time lead in the play-off they looked very well-placed to put a blot on Bohs’ impressive record in shield “test matches”. The Dubliners fashioned another second-half revival, however, and goals from Frankie Fullen, Billy Jordan and Dermot Skelly secured the club’s sixth (and last) League of Ireland Shield.

The outbreak of World War II had led to an immediate suspension of the English and Scottish leagues, and a knock-on effect was that the possibility of league representative matches against any overseas team had now all but been removed. There was time for one more twist, however, as a Scottish XI (comprised only of players from Glasgow area clubs) made a trip to Dalymount Park at the end of the 1939-40 season. Their opponents would be an Irish XI made up of 10 League of Ireland players, and Jackie Carey of Manchester United (the team contained two of Carey’s former St. James’s Gate team-mates) filling the one remaining place. Billed as a Scottish attempt to gain revenge for the previous season’s inter-league defeat, a large crowd were present to see the visitors edge a very exciting match by three goals to two. By now, however, the economic effects of the war were beginning to make life very difficult for League of Ireland clubs (fuel shortages and a lack of rail services were two of the biggest problems), and this prompted Sligo Rovers to resign their league position before the beginning of the 1940-41 season. Although the league advertised for a replacement club, none was found in time for the beginning of the new campaign.

League of Ireland 1939-40

PWDLFAPts
St. James’s Gate221723632736
Shamrock Rovers221345513930
Sligo Rovers221246604428
Dundalk221138453625
Cork United221138403425
Drumcondra221057494525
Shelbourne22688413920
Bohemians227411364618
Bray Unknowns228113495217
Brideville226511394917
Waterford226412445416
Limerick22151623757

League top scorers : Paddy Bradshaw St. James’s Gate, 29 Paddy Leeney Bray Unknowns, 16 Jimmy Dunne Shamrock Rovers, 15 Joe McAleer Sligo Rovers, 15 Tim O’Keeffe Waterford, 15

Representative match : League of Ireland 2-0 Irish League

An ‘Ireland XI’ with 10 home-based players meets a Scotland XI at Dalymount Park in April 1940

1937-38 League of Ireland season

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It was decided that the Dublin City Cup, like the League of Ireland Shield, should now become a beginning of season competition, and a 2-1 win for Dundalk against Cork in the Dalymount Park final decided this season’s first piece of silverware. Shamrock Rovers (with the returned Irish international and former Arsenal star Jimmy ‘Snowy’ Dunne as player-coach) won the shield with four points to spare over Shelbourne, and went on to collect a fifth League of Ireland championship at the end of the season, one point ahead of Waterford. An unbeaten record at Kilcohan Park, and the goals of Tim O’Keeffe (who would depart for Scottish club Hibernian at the end of the season for a League of Ireland record £400) and Hughie O’Donnell had helped the Suirsiders to land the runners-up position ahead of Dundalk, and an unbeaten record at Harold’s Cross helped Brideville to a fourth-placed finish, their best League of Ireland performance to date. Meanwhile, a large exodus of players from the previous season’s runaway league champions Sligo Rovers meant that the north-westerners could only manage a sixth place finish this time around.

Having been on the losing side with St. James’s Gate in 1934 and 1937, Dundalk striker Alf Rigby now found his former teammates (including the league’s top scorer, Willie ‘Wagger’ Byrne) standing in the way of him and an F.A.I. Cup winner’s medal. A close match was expected, as Dundalk had added a semi-final victory over Shamrock Rovers to a 5-1 league win over the Hoops at Milltown (Rovers won the league in spite of having a very generous defence), and the Gate had done real damage to Dundalk’s championship hopes by inflicting two league defeats on them. A goal from Dickie Comerford gave the Gate a half-time lead, only for Rigby to equalise for the Lilywhites just two minutes into the second period. A penalty from the Gate’s Irish international defender, Paddy Gaskins, a few minutes later proved to be the winner, however, and the border club had to contend with a third defeat in a Free State / F.A.I. Cup decider. The result also ensured that the Lilywhites had been eliminated by the eventual cup winners in each of the previous six campaigns.

The 1937-38 season was definitely one to forget for Drumcondra F.C. As well as finishing bottom of the league table, they were dumped out of the F.A.I. Cup by their near neighbours Distillery, with the Leinster Senior League club strolling to an easy 4-0 win at Tolka Park. Drums put in a much better performance in losing 5-4 to champions-elect Shamrock Rovers in front of a big crowd at Tolka in March, but this game ended up being the catalyst for another bad news story. After a bag containing some of the gate receipts from the match went missing, the teenage son of a club official soon appeared in court, and with his own father among those giving evidence in the case, eventually found himself charged with larceny.

1937-38 was the first time that the league contained a club from the Free State’s third-largest city, with a newly-formed Limerick side (they beat Shamrock Rovers 1-0 in the Dublin City Cup in their debut senior fixture) having been elected to the league following the resignation of Dolphin. The Dublin club would not feature in the League of Ireland again, but with one league championship, two F.A.I. Cup final appearances (in beating St. James’s Gate 10-0 in 1932, they had established a record away winning margin in an F.A.I. Cup match that would stand for over 80 years), and six senior Irish international players, they had certainly made a significant impact on Irish football. Shamrock Rovers took part in an effort to promote the game in Galway by playing an exhibition match there the day after their league victory, but the possibility of a Galway club joining the League of Ireland still seemed some distance away. The league contained the same 12 teams for the beginning of the 1938-39 season, with the only change being Cork’s transformation (the club had been liquidated and immediately reformed in February 1938) into Cork City F.C.

League of Ireland 1937-38

PWDLFAPts
Shamrock Rovers221444714732
Waterford221354764031
Dundalk221345532930
Brideville221255513529
St. James’s Gate221318654027
Sligo Rovers227510556119
Shelbourne226610364718
Bray Unknowns228212375618
Bohemians227312556017
Limerick226511344317
Cork226115387813
Drumcondra225314326713

League top scorers : Willie Byrne St. James’s Gate, 25 Frank Fullen Bohemians, 22 Tim O’Keeffe Waterford, 21

Representative match : League of Ireland 1-3 Irish League

1935-36 Free State League season

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Brideville re-entered the Free State League for 1935-36 after a three-season absence, and were joined by Reds United F.C., who were, essentially, Shelbourne F.C. in disguise. The new club played at Glenmalure Park, Milltown, home of Shamrock Rovers, but contained both players and officials from Shelbourne. With four players in double figures for the season, Bohemians scored 73 goals in 22 games on their way to a fifth league title (the last ever by an amateur club) this year, with Dolphin (whose win at Dalymount deprived Bohs of taking maximum home points) proving that the previous year’s successes were no fluke, by claiming the runners-up spot ahead of Cork. The latter club’s revival in fortunes could be attributed almost entirely to one man, with some 37 of their 61 league goals coming from Englishman Jimmy Turnbull.

The centre-forward (who was also a champion sprinter) set other Irish footballing records as well this season, with 11 goals coming in the Leesiders’ Free State Cup run, and an overall haul of 63 across the four main domestic competitions. A striker as prolific as Turnbull, if retained, might well have brought Cork to the pinnacle of League of Ireland football, but the £50 signing-on fee the forward sought for the 1936-37 season would prove too much for the Leesiders to part with. Instead, his appearance in the 1936 Free State Cup final against Shamrock Rovers would serve as his best opportunity to shoot the Cork club to a major honour, but in spite of a team selection issue that saw the club’s players refuse to tog out until minutes before the game (centre-forward Paul Scully, who had scored in every round, was dropped from the team by the Rovers owner, Joe Cunningham), goals from Paddy Moore and former Brideville star Charlie Reid rendered a late Turnbull strike insufficient, and the cup was on its way to Milltown for a seventh time.

Meanwhile, a shield success saw St. James’s Gate take their first national honour since their double triumph 14 years previously, with second-placed, unbeaten Drumcondra left cursing a last-day goalless draw with third-placed Sligo Rovers. Just as Dolphin (whose Ray Rogers was one of three players at the club to score 16 league goals or more this season) had done the year before, Bohemians capped off their league championship success by adding the Dublin City Cup, their 4-3 defeat of Dundalk in the final (the competition had been changed to a straight knock-out format this season, with corner counts set to decide any drawn games) echoing the Free State Cup decider of the previous season. Reds United, meanwhile, claimed a respectable fourth place finish in what would prove to be their only Free State League campaign, relinquishing their position to make way for Shelbourne’s return.

Free State League 1935-36
PWDLFAPts
Bohemians221723732736
Dolphin221534663833
Cork221435613831
Reds United221219454725
Waterford22958585323
Shamrock Rovers2210210615822
Dundalk229310433921
Sligo Rovers229310484721
Drumcondra229211455320
St. James’s Gate228311474219
Brideville224315356411
Bray Unknowns22102123992

League top scorers : Jimmy Turnbull Cork, 37 Ray Rogers Dolphin, 23 William Ouchterlonie Reds United, 20

1921-22 League of Ireland season

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The first League of Ireland season, kicking off in September of 1921, saw St. James’s Gate capturing a league and cup double. The competitions, originally the Football League of Ireland (with, like the British leagues, two points for a win and one for a draw) and the F.A.I. Cup, were renamed the Free State League and Free State Cup in the aftermath of the opening league campaign. This was done in anticipation of the foundation of the new, 26-county southern Irish “Free State”, which, in accordance with the terms of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, was due to come into existence in December of 1922. The F.A.I. itself was to undergo a similar change, becoming the “Football Association of the Irish Free State” (F.A.I.F.S.) upon its successful entry to F.I.F.A. in 1923.

St. James’s Gate had secured both national trophies in rather dramatic circumstances. The league championship race had boiled down to a last-day (December 17th) showdown with second-placed Bohemians at St. James’s Park, a 1-0 “Gate” victory enough to clinch the title by two points, with Shelbourne a further three points back in third. The Free State Cup final (held at Bohemians’ Dalymount Park), meanwhile, almost descended into complete pandemonium. With non-league Shamrock Rovers having forced a replay following an initial 1-1 draw on St. Patrick’s Day (a game that had attracted a very satisfactory crowd of 15,000), a first-half goal from Jack Kelly was enough to see off their spirited challenge in the second match, or so it appeared. An on-field dispute between Rovers’ Bob Fullam and St. James’s Gate’s Charlie Dowdall escalated into full-blown fisticuffs after the final whistle, and with Rovers players and fans taking the opportunity to assault members of the winning team (the incident was typical of the general lawlessness that was prevalent during the aftermath of the Irish Civil War), the fracas continued all the way into the St. James’s Gate dressing room. It was only when Dowdall’s brother Jack (who had seen active military service) fired a gunshot into the ceiling that order was restored. (The format of the Free State Cup was similar to that of the F.A. Cup in Britain, with non-league sides competing in a number of preliminary rounds, before joining up with the Free State League sides for the first round “proper”. The winners of the first round ties then proceeded to the quarter-final stage.)

With the league season having been wrapped up by December, it was decided to provide for the creation of a Free State Shield, which would come to be seen as the third most important competition in Irish Free State football. The tournament initially ran from December to April, and took the form of a full league programme for the inaugural season, with each Free State League club facing each other twice. The inaugural Free State Shield was won by Shelbourne, who, bar two defeats by second-placed Bohemians (who collected full points from their Dalymount Park outings, and conceded just seven goals in their entire shield programme), recouped maximum points from their 14 shield fixtures.

It had perhaps been no surprise that only Bohemians and Shelbourne had mounted realistic challenges to St. James’s for that first league title. The campaign would prove to be the first and only season for Frankfort (they resigned with three of their shield games still unplayed) and Y.M.C.A., the latter having failed to record a single league victory, taking just three draws from their 14 league games. Shamrock Rovers, who had been formed in the Ringsend / Irishtown (they took their name from nearby Shamrock Avenue) area of Dublin as far back as 1901, would be one of six new league recruits for 1922-23. Of the others, Shelbourne United (with no links to Shelbourne F.C., this club played at Angelsea Road, Ballsbridge for their first season), Pioneers (who drew from membership of the alcoholic abstinence organisation of the same name, and played out of Strand Road, Clontarf for their first season), Midland Athletic (a railway works team based at “The Thatch” in Whitehall; they would share the venue with Pioneers from 1923 onwards) and Rathmines Athletic (based at Rathmines Park) were also from Dublin, while Athlone Town (one of the oldest clubs in the Free State, having been established in 1887; their first home was the Sports Ground) had the distinction of being the first Free State League side from outside the capital city.

League of Ireland 1921-22

PWDLFAPts
St. James’s Gate14111231823
Bohemians141013351321
Shelbourne14824312118
Olympia14545202114
Jacobs14446232712
Frankfort14356223211
Dublin United14509253910
Y.M.C.A.14031117433

League top scorers : Jack Kelly St. James’s Gate, 11 Paddy Smith Jacobs, 10 E. Pollock Bohemians, 9

Bohemians play a pre-season friendly against a Falls League selection