2018 Dundalk F.C. season

Dundalk
2018 season
	Dundalk F.C. players celebrate League and Cup Double in 2018
Manager	Stephen Kenny
Premier Division	1st (Champions)
FAI Cup	Winners
League Cup	Semi-final
President's Cup	Runners-up
Leinster Senior Cup	Semi-final
Europa League	2Q
Top goalscorer	League: ; Patrick Hoban (29)[lower-alpha 1]; All: ; Patrick Hoban (32)
Highest home attendance	4,117 (vs. Cork City, 29 June 2018)[1]
Home colours	Away colours

Dundalk entered the 2018 season as the League Cup holders from 2017, having won that competition and finished as runners-up in both league and FAI Cup. In January the club was taken over by United States-based investors, who had identified the club's European progress as a commercial opportunity. 2018 would turn out to be Stephen Kenny's sixth and final season as manager. He resigned one month after the end of the season to accept the Republic of Ireland U-21 manager's role, and was replaced by his assistant, Vinny Perth for 2019. The 2018 season was Dundalk's 10th consecutive season in the top tier of Irish football, their 83rd in all, and their 92nd in the League of Ireland.

Season summary

The new season's curtain raiser - the President's Cup - was played on 11 February in Oriel Park between Dundalk and Cork City - the winners of both league and cup the previous year. Cork City won on a 4-2 scoreline.[2] The 36 round League programme commenced on 16 February 2018, and was completed on 26 October 2018. Dundalk regained their title with three games to spare, sealing the title in Oriel Park in a 1-1 draw with St Patrick's Athletic on 5 October 2018.[3] They went on to win the 2018 FAI Cup with a 2-1 victory over Cork City in the final on 4 November 2018 - the club's fourth League and Cup Double.[4] An opportunity to win the club's first domestic Treble was spurned when a largely reserve side lost the League Cup semi-final away to First Division Cobh Ramblers.[5]

In Europe progress was limited when, after defeating Levadia Tallinn,[6] and holding AEK Larnaca scoreless in Oriel Park, three quickfire first half goals in the away leg in Cyprus in the 2018-19 Europa League second qualifying round ended their interest in that year's competition.[7]

First-Team Squad (2018)

Sources:[8][9]

Squad No.	Name	Date of Birth	Position	Debut season	League appearances	Goals
1	Gary Rogers	25 September 1981	GK	2015	34	0
2	Seán Gannon	11 July 1991	DF	2014	26	1
3	Brian Gartland	4 November 1986	DF	2013	22	1
4	Seán Hoare	15 March 1994	DF	2017	27	2
5	Chris Shields	27 December 1990	MF	2012	33	3
6	Stephen O'Donnell	15 January 1986	MF	2013	10	0
7	Michael Duffy	28 July 1994	MF	2017	36	13
8	John Mountney	22 February 1993	MF	2012	18	4
9	Patrick Hoban	28 July 1991	FW	2013	36	29
10	Jamie McGrath	30 September 1996	MF	2017	30	2
11	Krisztián Adorján[lower-alpha 2]	19 January 1993	MF	2018	16	3
11	Patrick McEleney[lower-alpha 3]	26 September 1992	MF	2016	11	1
12	Sam Byrne[lower-alpha 4]	23 July 1995	FW	2018	2	0
13	Karolis Chvedukas	21 April 1991	MF	2018	7	1
14	Dane Massey	17 April 1988	DF	2013	29	1
15	Stephen Folan	14 January 1992	DF	2018	9	1
16	Dylan Connolly	2 May 1995	MF	2017	28	4
17	Georgie Poynton	8 September 1997	MF	2015	4	0
18	Robbie Benson	7 May 1992	MF	2016	32	9
19	Ronan Murray	12 September 1991	FW	2018	23	3
21	Daniel Cleary	9 March 1996	DF	2018	26	3
22	Gabriel Sava	15 September 1986	GK	2014	3	0
23	Marco Tagbajumi[lower-alpha 5]	1 July 1988	FW	2018	16	2
30	Ross Treacy	26 September 1998	GK	2018	0	0
33	Dean Jarvis	1 June 1992	DF	2018	19	0
45	Georgie Kelly[lower-alpha 6]	12 November 1996	FW	2018	7	0

Competitions

President's Cup

Source:[10]

11 February 2018	Cork City	4 - 2	Dundalk	Oriel Park
		Report		Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Derek Tomney

Premier Division

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Dundalk (C)	36	27	6	3	85	20	+65	87	Qualification to Champions League first qualifying round
2	Cork City	36	24	5	7	71	27	+44	77	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round[lower-alpha 7]
3	Shamrock Rovers	36	18	8	10	57	27	+30	62
4	Waterford	36	18	5	13	52	44	+8	59
5	St Patrick's Athletic	36	15	5	16	51	47	+4	50	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round[lower-alpha 7]

Source: SSE Airtricity League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored.[11]
(C) Champion.
Notes:

new club record.
Loan signing, loan completed in July.
Signed from Oldham Athletic in July and took the departed Adorján's squad number.
Sent on loan to Glentoran in July.
Released in July.
Signed from UCD in July.
Since the winners of the 2018 FAI Cup, Dundalk, qualified for European competition based on their league position, the spot awarded to the Cup winner (Europa League first qualifying round) would normally pass to the next best-placed team (the fourth-placed team). However, as Waterford were adjudged by UEFA to have not passed the "three-year rule" as they were reformed in 2016, the spot was passed to the fifth-placed team.

FAI Cup

Source:[12]

First Round

10 August 2018	Dundalk	3–0	Cobh Ramblers	Dundalk
19:45	Murray 32', 85' McGrath 52'	Report		Stadium: Oriel Park Referee: Robert Rogers

Second Round

24 August 2018	Dundalk	2–0	Finn Harps	Dundalk
19:45	Murray 24' (pen.) Kelly 52'	Report		Stadium: Oriel Park Attendance: 1,823 Referee: Paul McLaughlin

Quarter Final

7 September 2018	Limerick	0–4	Dundalk	Limerick
19:45	O'Sullivan 20' Maguire 59' Coleman 70'	Report	Hoban 5', 21' Mountney 36' Kelly 71'	Stadium: Markets Field Referee: Derek Tomney

Semi Final

28 September 2018	Dundalk	1–0	UCD	Dundalk
19:45	McEleney 41'	Report		Stadium: Oriel Park Attendance: 2,926 Referee: Robert Hennessy

Final

4 November 2018	Cork City	1–2	Dundalk	Aviva Stadium
16:40	Sadlier 21' (pen)	Report	Hoare 19' McEleney 73'	Attendance: 30,412 Referee: Neil Doyle

League Cup

Source:[13]

Second Round

2 April 2018	St Patrick's Athletic	4–4 (a.e.t.) (7–8 p)	Dundalk*	Richmond Park
17:00	Fagan 58' Kelly 60' Leahy 97' Leahy 104'		Tagbajumi 3' Murray 45' Leahy 102' (og.) Massey 120'	Referee: Adriano Reale
	Penalties
	Fagan Clarke Doona Kelly Lennon Toner Leahy Madden Markey		Massey McGrath Poynton Adorján Gartland Mountney O'Donnell Folan Tagbajumi

Quarter Final

8 May 2018	Dundalk	3–0	Bohemians	Oriel Park
19:45	Dylan Connolly 8', 21' Jamie McGrath 88'	Report		Attendance: 1,000 (estimate) Referee: Robert Rogers

Semi Final

6 August 2018	Cobh Ramblers	1–0	Dundalk	St. Colman's Park
17:00	Christopher Hull 75'	Report		Referee: Sean Grant

Leinster Senior Cup

Source:[14]

Fourth Round

5 June 2018	Dundalk	3–1	Bohemians	Dundalk, County Louth
19:45 GMT	Ronan Murray 69' Sam Byrne 81' Krisztián Adorján 84'	Report	J.J. Lunney 26'	Stadium: Oriel Park Attendance: 500 (est.) Referee: Tom Dempsey

Quarter Final

2 July 2018	Shamrock Rovers	0–1	Dundalk	Tallaght, County Dublin
19:45 GMT		Report	Ronan Murray 25'	Stadium: Tallaght Stadium Attendance: 500 (est.) Referee: Derek Tomney

Semi Final

3 September 2018	St Patrick's Athletic	1–0 (a.e.t.)	Dundalk	Inchicore, Dublin
19:45 GMT	Kevin Toner 105'	Report		Stadium: Richmond Park Attendance: 750 (est.) Referee: Alan Patchell

Europe

Europa League

First qualifying round

12 July 2018

18:00 (19:00 EEST)

FCI Levadia	0–1	Dundalk
	Report	Connolly 53'

Kadriorg Stadium, Tallinn

Attendance: 1,343<

Referee: Bojan Nikolić (Serbia)

19 July 2018

20:45 (19:45 IST)

Dundalk	2–1	FCI Levadia
Hoban 31' Duffy 33'	Report	Debelko 42'

Oriel Park, Dundalk

Attendance: 3,100

Referee: Adrien Jaccottet (Switzerland)

Dundalk won 3–1 on aggregate.

Second qualifying round

26 July 2018

20:45 (19:45 IST)

Dundalk	0–0	AEK Larnaca
	Report

Oriel Park, Dundalk

Attendance: 3,100

Referee: Harald Lechner (Austria)

2 August 2018

17:30 (18:30 EEST)

AEK Larnaca	4–0	Dundalk
Tričkovski 13', 38' Tete 21' Tomàs 87'	Report

AEK Arena – Georgios Karapatakis, Larnaca

Attendance: 3,991

Referee: Fran Jović (Croatia)

AEK Larnaca won 4–0 on aggregate.

Awards

Player of the Month

Month	Player	References
April	Michael Duffy	[15]
May	Seán Hoare	[16]
June	Patrick Hoban	[17]
August	Michael Duffy	[18]
September	Chris Shields	[19]
October/November	Patrick McEleney	[20]

PFAI Player of the Year

Player	Reference
Michael Duffy	[21]

PFAI Young Player of the Year

Player	Reference
Jamie McGrath	[21]

FAI League of Ireland Player of the Year

Player	Reference
Chris Shields	[22]

SWAI Personality of the Year

Person	Reference
Stephen Kenny	[23]

Footnotes

gollark: ↑ fake

gollark: ddg! Macron

gollark: Macron isn't real, lyricly.

gollark: No.

gollark: I reject the concept of Forth however.

References

Newberry, Niall (29 June 2018). "League Report: Dundalk 2 – 1 Cork City Att: 4,117". www.extratime.ie. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
Newberry, Niall (11 February 2018). "President's Cup Report: Dundalk 2 - 4 Cork City". www.extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
Newberry, Niall. "League Report: Dundalk 1 - 1 St Patrick's Athletic". www.extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
Newberry, Niall. "FAI Cup Final Report: Cork City 1 - 2 Dundalk". www.extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
McLaughlin, Gavin (11 August 2018). "Kenny focussed on league title after putting Dundalk FC's 'embarrassing' defeat to Cobh behind him". www.dundalksport.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
McLaughlin, Gavin (19 July 2018). "Duffy scores a wonder goal as Dundalk FC finally see off Leavdia to set up Larnaca showdown". Dundalk Sport. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
McLaughlin, Gavin (2 August 2018). "Dundalk's European hopes crumble in Cyprus as AEK cruise into round three". Dundalk Sport. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
"Dundalk FC Squad 2018". www.worldfootball.net. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
"2018 SQUAD NUMBERS CONFIRMED". dundalkfc.com. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
"PRESIDENTS CUP". extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
"Premier Division 2017 - Season rules". Scoresway. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
"FAI CUP". extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
"EA SPORTS LEAGUE CUP". extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
"LEINSTER SENIOR CUP". extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
"In-form Duffy wins monthly award for first time". RTÉ Sport. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
O'Hehir, Paul. "Dundalk defender Sean Hoare scoops Player of the Month award for May". Irish Mirror. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
"PATRICK HOBAN WINS JUNE PLAYER OF THE MONTH AWARD". SSE Airtricity League. 17 July 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
"Dundalk's Duffy on the double". Soccer Writers' Association of Ireland. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
"Third time's a charm for Shields". Soccer Writers' Association of Ireland. 18 October 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
"Third time's a charm for Shields". Soccer Writers' Association of Ireland. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
"Double-winner Michael Duffy named PFAI Player of the Year". The42.ie. 11 November 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
Newberry, Niall (18 March 2019). "Chris Shields scoops SSE Airtricity League Player of the Year award". www.extratime.ie. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
"Stephen Kenny named soccer writers' Personality of the Year". www.the42.ie. 11 January 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2019.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] w club record.

[11] Loan signing, loan completed in July.

[12] Signed from Oldham Athletic in July and took the departed Adorján's squad number.

[13] Sent on loan to Glentoran in July.

[14] Released in July.

[15] Signed from UCD in July.

[table_note_res_EL1Q0.4033596959912-17] Since the winners of the 2018 FAI Cup, Dundalk, qualified for European competition based on their league position, the spot awarded to the Cup winner (Europa League first qualifying round) would normally pass to the next best-placed team (the fourth-placed team). However, as Waterford were adjudged by UEFA to have not passed the "three-year rule" as they were reformed in 2016, the spot was passed to the fifth-placed team.

[2] Newberry, Niall (29 June 2018). "League Report: Dundalk 2 – 1 Cork City Att: 4,117". www.extratime.ie. Retrieved 23 June 2019.

[3] Newberry, Niall (11 February 2018). "President's Cup Report: Dundalk 2 - 4 Cork City". www.extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.

[4] Newberry, Niall. "League Report: Dundalk 1 - 1 St Patrick's Athletic". www.extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.

[5] Newberry, Niall. "FAI Cup Final Report: Cork City 1 - 2 Dundalk". www.extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.

[6] McLaughlin, Gavin (11 August 2018). "Kenny focussed on league title after putting Dundalk FC's 'embarrassing' defeat to Cobh behind him". www.dundalksport.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.

[7] McLaughlin, Gavin (19 July 2018). "Duffy scores a wonder goal as Dundalk FC finally see off Leavdia to set up Larnaca showdown". Dundalk Sport. Retrieved 6 November 2019.

[8] McLaughlin, Gavin (2 August 2018). "Dundalk's European hopes crumble in Cyprus as AEK cruise into round three". Dundalk Sport. Retrieved 6 November 2019.

[9] "Dundalk FC Squad 2018". www.worldfootball.net. Retrieved 23 June 2019.

[10] "2018 SQUAD NUMBERS CONFIRMED". dundalkfc.com. Retrieved 21 October 2019.

[16] "PRESIDENTS CUP". extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.

[18] "Premier Division 2017 - Season rules". Scoresway. Retrieved 15 January 2017.

[19] "FAI CUP". extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.

[20] "EA SPORTS LEAGUE CUP". extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.

[21] "LEINSTER SENIOR CUP". extratime.ie. Retrieved 6 November 2019.

[duffyrte-22] "In-form Duffy wins monthly award for first time". RTÉ Sport. Retrieved 8 June 2018.

[hoare-23] O'Hehir, Paul. "Dundalk defender Sean Hoare scoops Player of the Month award for May". Irish Mirror. Retrieved 15 June 2018.

[24] "PATRICK HOBAN WINS JUNE PLAYER OF THE MONTH AWARD". SSE Airtricity League. 17 July 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2018.

[25] "Dundalk's Duffy on the double". Soccer Writers' Association of Ireland. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2019.

[26] "Third time's a charm for Shields". Soccer Writers' Association of Ireland. 18 October 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2019.

[27] "Third time's a charm for Shields". Soccer Writers' Association of Ireland. Retrieved 16 June 2019.

[Duffy-28] "Double-winner Michael Duffy named PFAI Player of the Year". The42.ie. 11 November 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2019.

[29] Newberry, Niall (18 March 2019). "Chris Shields scoops SSE Airtricity League Player of the Year award". www.extratime.ie. Retrieved 23 October 2019.

[30] "Stephen Kenny named soccer writers' Personality of the Year". www.the42.ie. 11 January 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2019.