Republic of Ireland Premier Division 03/29 19:45 7 Shamrock Rovers v Bohemians Dublin - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 04/01 16:00 8 Waterford FC v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 04/05 18:45 9 St Patricks v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 04/12 20:00 10 Shamrock Rovers v Sligo Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 04/19 19:45 11 Derry City v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 04/22 19:45 24 Shelbourne v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 04/26 20:00 12 Shamrock Rovers v Galway United - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 05/03 18:45 13 Bohemians Dublin v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 05/06 16:00 14 Shamrock Rovers v Waterford FC - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 05/10 19:00 15 Shamrock Rovers v St Patricks - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 05/17 18:45 16 Dundalk v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 05/20 19:00 25 Shamrock Rovers v Derry City - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 05/24 19:00 17 Shamrock Rovers v Shelbourne - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 05/31 18:45 18 Drogheda United v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 06/03 16:00 19 Galway United v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 06/07 19:00 20 Shamrock Rovers v Bohemians Dublin - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 06/13 18:45 21 St Patricks v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 06/28 18:45 22 Sligo Rovers v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 07/04 19:00 23 Shamrock Rovers v Dundalk - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 08/02 18:45 26 Waterford FC v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 08/09 19:00 27 Shamrock Rovers v Drogheda United - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 08/23 19:00 28 Shamrock Rovers v Galway United - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 08/30 18:45 29 Bohemians Dublin v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 09/13 19:00 30 Shamrock Rovers v Sligo Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 09/20 18:45 31 Derry City v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 09/27 19:00 32 Shamrock Rovers v St Patricks - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 10/04 19:00 33 Shamrock Rovers v Shelbourne - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 10/18 18:45 34 Drogheda United v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 10/25 18:45 35 Dundalk v Shamrock Rovers - View
Republic of Ireland Premier Division 11/01 19:45 36 Shamrock Rovers v Waterford FC - View

Wikipedia - Shamrock Rovers F.C.

Shamrock Rovers Football Club (Irish: Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish professional football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most successful club in the Republic of Ireland. The club has won the League of Ireland title a record 21 times and the FAI Cup a record 25 times. Shamrock Rovers have supplied more players to the Republic of Ireland national football team (64) than any other club. In All-Ireland competitions, such as the Intercity Cup, they hold the record for winning the most titles, having won seven cups overall.

Shamrock Rovers were founded in Ringsend, Dublin. The official date of the club's foundation is 1899. They won the League title at the first attempt in the 1922–23 season and established themselves as Republic of Ireland most successful club by 1949, winning 44 major trophies. During the 1950s, the club won three League titles and two FAI Cups and became the first Irish team to compete in European competition, playing in the European Cup in 1957.

They followed this by winning a record six FAI Cups in succession in the 1960s, when they were also one of the European club teams that spent the summer of 1967 in the United States, founding the United Soccer Association. They won the first of four League titles in a row in 1983–84, after a long decline.

The club played at Glenmalure Park from 1926 to 1987 when the owners controversially sold the stadium to property developers. Shamrock Rovers spent the next 22 years playing home games at various venues around Dublin and on occasions, Ireland. They moved into Tallaght Stadium prior to the start of the 2009 season after years of delays and legal disputes, during which time the club's supporters saved them from extinction.

Shamrock Rovers wore green and white striped jerseys until 1926 when they adopted the green and white hooped strip that they have worn ever since. Their club badge has featured a football and a shamrock throughout their history. The club has a relatively large support base and shares an intense rivalry with Bohemian Football Club and St Patrick's Athletic. On 25 August 2011 Rovers became the first Irish side to reach the group stages of either of the top two European competitions by beating Partizan Belgrade in the play-off round of the Europa League.

History

Foundation and early history

The foundation of Shamrock Rovers is disputed amongst supporters of the club. No official documentation of the era exists. For many years the earliest known mention of the club in the newspaper archives at the National Library of Ireland came from 1901 and an article in the club programme from 28 December 1941 claims that the club was founded in this year. Research by the Shamrock Rovers Heritage Trust uncovered a very brief report in the Evening Herald from April 1899 on a match between Shamrock Rovers and Rosemount, which has established that the club was in existence from at least that time. The only two certainties about the origins of the club in relation to what year they were formed are the facts that, Rovers played only exhibition games for the first two years of their existence and the club registered with the Leinster Football Association in 1901. Essentially, the dispute is over whether the two years of exhibition games were played before or after the registration. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the date 1899 was written on the gates of Glenmalure Park but since the 1990s, 1901 had been adopted as the founding year by the various regimes which have run the club. In light of the discovery of evidence supporting a founding date before April 1899 the club opened an 1899 Suite in Tallaght Stadium in February 2017.

Shamrock Rovers originate from Ringsend, a Southside inner suburb of Dublin. The name of the club derives from Shamrock Avenue in Ringsend, where the first club rooms were secured. In September 1906, after a few seasons in operation, Rovers withdrew from the First Division of the Leinster Senior League. In 1914, they were resurrected and started playing their matches at Ringsend Park. On 17 April 1915, the side won the Irish Junior Cup, which was then the top junior competition organised on an all-Ireland basis. They defeated Derry Celtic Swifts 1–0 in the final, played in Dublin. However, Ringsend park became unavailable within two years. The club disbanded and played only exhibition games for the next five years. In 1921, Shamrock Rovers were resurrected once more, as a Leinster Senior League outfit, and reached the final of the inaugural FAI Cup, where they lost to St James's Gate in a fixture marred by crowd violence. The following season, the club won the League of Ireland title at the first attempt, going 21 games unbeaten and scoring 77 goals. In 1924, an influential member of the League winning side of two years previous, Bob Fullam, returned to Rovers from Leeds United and combined with John Flood, John Fagan and Billy Farrell to complete the forward line known as The Four Fs. By the conclusion of their fifth season in the League of Ireland, the club had won three League titles and one FAI Cup. During the 1930s, the club won a further three League titles and five FAI Cups with Irish internationals, Paddy Moore and Jimmy Dunne playing key roles in their success, supported by crowds of up to 30,000 people at Glenmalure Park. By 1949, Shamrock Rovers had established themselves as Ireland's most successful football club. Their 44 major trophies included six League of Ireland titles, 11 FAI Cups, seven League of Ireland Shields, six Leinster Senior Cups, two Dublin City Cups, four Intercity Cups and eight President's Cups.

Coad's Colts

In November 1949, following the death of Jimmy Dunne, Paddy Coad accepted the position of player-manager having played with the club for almost eight years, in which time he had established himself as one of the best players in the League of Ireland. Coad opted for a radical youth policy and over the course of his first three years in charge, signed virtually the entire schoolboy international side to Rovers. He employed revolutionary training methods with extra emphasis on technical skill and possession which resulted in a fast, passing style of football that contributed significantly to the development of the game in Ireland. In 1954, the club won the League of Ireland for the first time in fifteen years, while Paddy Ambrose finished the season as the team's leading scorer. Led by players like Liam Tuohy and Coad himself, the team known as Coad's Colts proceeded to win two more league titles and two FAI Cups, concluding the golden era of Irish football as one of its most successful teams.

Six in a row

After the departure of Coad in 1960 and an unsuccessful season under Albie Murphy, Seán Thomas took on the role of rebuilding the Rovers team which had suffered from the break-up of Coad's Colts. Paddy Ambrose and Ronnie Nolan had remained with the club and were joined by a large selection of signings including Irish internationals, Frank O’Neill and Johnny Fullam. The decision by Liam Tuohy to return to the club as captain, after four successful years at Newcastle United, effectively saw the completion of Thomas' side. The club won every domestic honour except the Top Four Competition in the 1963–64 season and were narrowly defeated by holders and eventual finalists, Valencia, in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. Thomas, however, quit the Hoops at the end of the season following a dispute with the Cunninghams (Owners) over team selection. Liam Tuohy took over as player-manager and led the club to a further five FAI Cups in succession, completing a series of six, including a 3–0 defeat of League of Ireland champions, Waterford in 1968, in front of 40,000 people at Dalymount Park. The summer of 1967 had been spent in the United States, participating in the foundation of the United Soccer Association, where Rovers represented Boston as Boston Rovers. The 1968–69 season saw Mick Leech score a total of 56 goals for the club, including two in the last FAI Cup final of the Six in a Row period, against Cork Celtic.

Decline

The Hoops' defeat to Shelbourne in the first round of the FAI Cup in 1970, their first defeat in 32 Cup games over seven years, marked the start of the decline in the fortunes of the club. Despite only narrowly missing out on the League title in the 1970–71 season in controversial circumstances, the next twelve years proved to be a disaster for the club both on and off the field. On 25 April 1971, Rovers met Cork Hibs in Dalymount in a League play-off watched by 28,000 people. Their pre-match buildup was thrown into disarray when players and directors clashed over win bonuses. Hibs won the play-off 3–1. The next season, the Cunninghams, now under the control of sons Arthur and Des, sold the club to three brothers from Dublin; Paddy, Barton and Louis Kilcoyne. The Kilcoynes had witnessed decades of huge attendances at Irish football games and sought to take over the club primarily for business reasons. However, within the space of five years, the large crowds disappeared from Irish football stadia and combined with the demise of Drumcondra and Cork Hibs, the decline in fortunes of a number of top clubs and the lack of action by the FAI, the League of Ireland was plunged into a drastic decline. Faced with dwindling attendances, the Kilcoynes decided to starve the club and sold off senior players who were replaced by junior footballers. On a tour of Japan in 1975, Mick Meagan and Theo Dunne's young side defeated the Japanese national team 3–2 in front of 60,000 spectators at the Olympic Stadium, but that victory was the highlight of a season that saw the team finish bottom of the table and re-apply for admission into the League of Ireland.

In 1976, Meagan and Dunne resigned from the club and were replaced by Seán Thomas, the architect of the Six in a Row side, who with limited resources, re-signed Johnny Fullam and Mick Leech, as well as John Conway from Bohemians. Rovers finished the 1976–77 season in eleventh but won the club's only League of Ireland Cup, with Leech's 250th career goal proving the difference against Sligo. In July 1977, Irish international player-manager John Giles returned to Dublin to take up the same role at Rovers. The Kilcoynes implemented a full-time policy and unveiled plans to rebuild Glenmalure Park as a 50,000 all-seater stadium as well as turning the club into a school of excellence for Irish football, capable of challenging for European honours. Giles signed Irish internationals, Ray Treacy, Eamon Dunphy and Paddy Mulligan to complement the youth setup. In his first season in charge, the club won their 21st FAI Cup, defeating Sligo in a controversial final, but despite that success and emphatic victories in European competition against Apoel Nicosia and Fram Reykjavík, Giles' conservative approach based on possession football proved unsuccessful and on 3 February 1983, he resigned.

Four in a row

In the summer of 1983, Jim McLaughlin replaced Noel Campbell as Rovers' manager, after a successful period at Dundalk. Louis Kilcoyne made money available to McLaughlin who responded by selling and releasing almost the entire squad he had inherited from the Giles era, including fans' favourite, Alan O'Neill, while retaining the services of Liam Buckley, Harry Kenny, Alan Campbell and Peter Eccles. He brought in what was effectively a League of Ireland XI which included Jody Byrne and Noel King from Dundalk, Mick Neville from Drogheda, the trio of Eviston, Brady and O'Brien from Bohemians, and Anto Whelan and Neville Steedman from Manchester United and Thurles Town . On 1 April 1984, the club clinched their first League of Ireland title in 20 years with a 3–1 defeat of Shelbourne and 14 days later against Limerick at Glenmalure Park, midfielder and captain, Pat Byrne was presented with the trophy. Following that success, the club's two star strikers, Campbell and Buckley, were transferred to Racing de Santander and K.S.V. Waregem. McLaughlin replaced them with Mick Byrne and Noel Larkin and the pairing proved successful as the club won a further three League titles and three FAI Cups, with Byrne finishing the final season of the Four in a Row period as the League's top goalscorer. Dermot Keely managed and played for the club that year after McLaughlin's decision to transfer to Derry City [1] The Hoops won 74 League games out of 100 from August 1983 to April 1987, losing only 11.

The homeless years (1987–2009)

Tolka Park

Shortly after winning their 14th League title, Louis Kilcoyne announced that the Kilcoynes were selling Glenmalure Park, which they had recently purchased from the Jesuits. The team played the entire 1987–88 season in an almost empty Tolka Park as a result of a boycott called for by the Shamrock Rovers Supporters Club and KRAM (Keep Rovers at Milltown), which was observed by the vast majority of Hoops fans. Following the completion of the boycott season in Tolka, the Kilcoynes sold the football club to Dublin businessman John McNamara, who put forward a controversial proposal to move in with Bohemians at Dalymount Park. KRAM congregated to vote on whether to lift the boycott and on the proposal to move to Dalymount. Both motions were passed and the club spent the next two seasons at the Phibsboro venue, with an unrecognisable side playing in front of small attendances.

As the 1989–90 season concluded, the club announced that they were moving to the RDS Arena in Ballsbridge, located halfway between Ringsend and Milltown on the Southside of Dublin. On 30 September 1990, the RDS played host to Shamrock Rovers against St. Patrick's Athletic, in front of approximately 25,000 people [2]. The fixture started a six-year period at the venue that included a League title-winning season in 1993–94. Ray Treacy managed the League winning side which included Paul Osam, Gino Brazil, John Toal, Alan Byrne and Stephen Geoghegan, who ended the season as top goalscorer. The next season, a number of key players were released as Treacy and McNamara enforced a tight budget and opted to rebuild the side with young players. The team began the season with a heavy defeat to Górnik Zabrze in the UEFA Cup and struggled their way to a midtable standing. They started the 1995–96 season badly and by late that season, after almost two years of growing supporter discontent at the running of the club, Treacy resigned, with McNamara following him shortly afterwards. One of McNamara's final acts was to appoint Alan O'Neill and Terry Eviston, who had both returned to the club in 1993, as joint managers of the side. They succeeded in removing the threat of relegation and almost guided the team to European qualification.

Long road to Tallaght

As the 1995–96 season concluded, John McNamara sold the club to Premier Computers, headed by Alan McGrath. McGrath unveiled a plan to build a state-of-the-art stadium in the Dublin southwest suburb of Tallaght, and employed Pat Byrne as commercial manager. However, after a couple of weeks and a loss in the first game of the season, O’Neill was dismissed, while Eviston resigned in solidarity. Byrne was appointed manager of the side playing in Tolka Park once again, and they struggled through the season with the League's joint top scorer, Tony Cousins playing a leading role in avoiding relegation. In May 1997, Alan McGrath resigned as club chairman and was replaced by Brian Kearney, also of Premier Computers, who succeeded in acquiring planning permission for the new stadium in January 1998. However, the permission was delayed by objections until November 1998, by which time Joe Colwell had replaced Kearney as chairman and ended Premier Computers' involvement with the club. On the pitch, Mick Byrne guided Rovers to an Intertoto Cup spot in 1997–98 and an eighth-place finish, the next season. He was replaced by Damien Richardson, who managed the club during their stay at Morton Stadium before his dismissal in April 2002, after a disagreement with Colwell. By that time, a half-built shell of a stadium stood at the Tallaght site; Mulden International Ltd, recruited by Colwell to complete the project, had pulled out of building the stadium. They leased it to a separate company, transferring the responsibility, and focused on four acres that they had retained for themselves.

Examinership and survival

Promotion in 2006

Tony Maguire replaced Colwell as chairman and began the search for potential investors. In his first season as manager, Liam Buckley guided the club to the FAI Cup final and European qualification, as the team played at Richmond Park. The 2003 season was marked by the club's worsening finances as a deal with potential investor, Conor Clarkson was held up by Mulden's reluctance to sell their land. Having successfully applied for a one-year planning extension in October 2003, the club applied for a further extension a few months after Buckley's departure in September 2004. SDCC refused the application, but clarified their position by confirming their intention to build the stadium in partnership with the club, once the issue of ownership had been resolved. The trustees of the 400 Club (supporters group) informed the board of directors that they were no longer willing to bankroll their ownership of Shamrock Rovers.

Faced with the choice of remaining with Clarkson, whose plans were nullified by SDCC's decision, or cooperating with the council, Maguire chose the former and with Mulden's financing, initiated a High Court judicial review of the decision. The review failed and on 11 April 2005, facing debts of over two million Euro, the club entered into examinership. The 400 Club agreed to completely bankroll the club during the process. On 5 May 2005, Tony Maguire resigned on request by the FAI, who had discovered that the club had submitted their 2003 accounts in their application for a licence for the 2005 season. This resulted in a points deduction and subsequent relegation under Roddy Collins. The examinership concluded in July 2005 with the examiner accepting the 400 Club's bid for Shamrock Rovers, saving the club from extinction, and the supporters-owned club won promotion at the first attempt in 2006 under Pat Scully. The 2007 and 2008 seasons at Tolka Park were ones of overachievement and stability,[] but the major event of the period was the recommencement of building on the stadium after more than two years of legal disputes between the council and Thomas Davis CLG.

Tallaght

The 2009 season proved to be a progressive one for the club, starting with the completion of the stadium and ending with a second-place finish and qualification to the Europa League under the management of Michael O'Neill. Tallaght Stadium hosted the highest attendances in the League of Ireland, regularly selling out its capacity. The season was also marked by the visit of Real Madrid to Tallaght Stadium, where they defeated The Hoops 1–0 in front of a record attendance of 10,900 people. The team entered the 2010–11 Europa League in the second qualifying round and defeated Bnei Yehuda of Israel to progress to a third qualifying round tie against Juventus. The Italian side won the tie 3–0 on aggregate. Shamrock Rovers finished the 2010 season as champions, ending a 16-year drought by narrowly beating Bohemians to the title on goal difference. Rovers also got to the FAI Cup final, the first in the Aviva Stadium, where, in front of a crowd of over 30,000, they were defeated on penalties by Sligo Rovers.

2011 season

In 2011 the club played its first-ever Champions League game and its first game in the highest level of European Cup Competition since the 1987–88 European Cup, beating Estonian Champions Flora Tallinn in the 2011–12 Champions League Second qualifying round. They accomplished this feat by triumphing 1–0 in the first leg at Tallaght Stadium and drawing 0–0 in the second leg in Estonia to advance 1–0 on aggregate. Rovers were then beaten 3–0 on aggregate in the next round by Danish Champions Copenhagen but advanced to the 2011–12 Europa League Play-off round. There they were drawn against Serbian Champions FK Partizan, whom they defeated 3–2 on aggregate (2–1 on the night after extra time) to reach the group stages of the Europa League. This marked a famous victory for Irish football, as it was the first time an Irish club had reached the group stages of a major European competition. Rovers also won the All Ireland Setanta Sports Cup in 2011 by defeating Dundalk in the final at Tallaght Stadium. Rovers wrapped up a second league title in a row with a last-minute victory over UCD at Belfield on 25 October 2011.

Bradley era

The club suffered something of a lean spell after the highs of the 2011 season. Michael O'Neill departed to manage the Northern Ireland national team and was replaced by Stephen Kenny. However, Kenny was fired after less than a full season in 2012. His successor Trevor Croly also did not last a full season as manager despite winning two minor trophies, the League Cup and Setanta Cup in 2013. Pat Fenlon a former Rovers player was appointed the following season but he too failed to win major trophies. In 2016 he was replaced by Stephen Bradley, another former player, who at that time was coaching one of the club's underage sides. It took some time for Bradley to rebuild a winning team to challenge the then-dominant Dundalk.

However, through developing young players and astute signings such as Jack Byrne, Rovers steadily improved under Bradley's management. In 2019 Bradley's team won the FAI Cup, defeating Dundalk after penalties in the final, before a crowd of over 33,000, the first time that Rovers had won the Cup since 1987. The following season, a campaign truncated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Rovers won a shortened league season unbeaten. In the Europa League qualifying rounds Rovers were narrowly beaten 2–0 by Italian giants AC Milan. Dundalk denied Bradley's team a 'double' however, beating them in the FAI Cup Final, which due to the pandemic, was played behind closed doors. In 2021, despite losing star players such as Jack Byrne and Aaron McEneff, before the start of the season, Shamrock Rovers retained the title, finishing sixteen points ahead of nearest rival St Patrick's Athletic and picking up the trophy before a full house in Tallaght Stadium against Drogheda United. In 2022, Rovers won their third league title in a row, picking up the trophy in a 1–0 win against Derry City. The club also qualified for the group stages of the UEFA Conference League for the first time. Attendances also continued to improve, with an average of more than 6,000 fans attending home games in Tallaght stadium in 2022. In 2023 Shamrock Rovers again won the league title, equalling the record of four league championships in a row set by the club in the 1980s. However the team's European performance was disappointing, losing convincingly on aggregate to Icelandic side Breidablik in the Champions League qualifiers and Hungarian champions Ferencváros in the Europa league.

Shamrock Rovers is a professional soccer team based in Dublin, Ireland. The team was founded in 1901 and is one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Irish soccer history. The team plays their home matches at Tallaght Stadium, which has a capacity of 8,000 spectators.

Shamrock Rovers has a rich history of success, having won the League of Ireland title a record 17 times, as well as numerous domestic cups and European competitions. The team has also produced many talented players who have gone on to play for the Irish national team.

The team's playing style is characterized by a fast-paced, attacking approach, with an emphasis on possession and quick passing. The team's colors are green and white, and their crest features a shamrock, which is a symbol of Ireland.

Shamrock Rovers has a passionate fan base, known as the Hoops, who are known for their vocal support and dedication to the team. The team has a strong community presence, with many initiatives aimed at promoting soccer and healthy living among young people in the local area.

Overall, Shamrock Rovers is a proud and successful soccer team with a rich history and a bright future ahead.