Dundalk F.C.

Dundalk

Full name	Dundalk Football Club
Nickname(s)	Lilywhites, The Town
Founded	1903 as Dundalk GNR
Ground	Oriel Park
Capacity	4,500 (3,100 seated)
Manager	Stephen Kenny
League	League of Ireland Premier Division
2017	League of Ireland Premier Division, 2nd
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Dundalk Football Club (/dʌnˈdɔːk/; Irish: Cumann Peile Dhún Dealgan) is an Irish professional association football club based in Dundalk, County Louth. The club currently plays in the League of Ireland Premier Division. Founded in 1903, it is the second most successful team, in terms of trophies won, in the history of the League of Ireland. The traditional colours of the club are white jerseys with black shorts. Because of the white jerseys, the team has been nicknamed The Lilywhites. Home games are played in Oriel Park. A local rivalry is shared with Drogheda United, their Louth neighbours, who entered the League in 1963 as Drogheda FC and later became Drogheda United in 1975.

Since 1999, and in conjunction with Irish League side Linfield of Belfast, the club has been engaged in a peace and reconciliation programme, known as the Dunfield Project, which through the medium of football is facilitating the coming together of young people from the Dundalk and Belfast communities. In 2002, the club won the FAI Cup for a ninth time. The club operated as a co-operative, with teams competing from school-boy level in Dublin-based leagues to girls' and ladies' teams, along with the first-team for a period until August 2006, when it was taken over by a local business man, Gerry Matthews. Dundalk celebrated its 2000th league game against Finn Harps on Thursday 8 March 2007 in Oriel Park to a crowd of 3,000 spectators.

In 2016, the club became the first Irish side to reach the play-off round of the UEFA Champions League after their 3–1 aggregate win over BATE Borisov. They were beaten by Legia Warsaw in the final play-off round and instead participated in the UEFA Europa League. They became the first Irish side to draw and win a group stage game in European competition when they drew against AZ Alkmar 1–1 and beat Maccabi Tel Aviv 1–0 at home.

History

The first newspaper reports of organised football in Dundalk appeared in the Dundalk Democrat on 17 December 1892, when an article appeared about a match that had occurred nine days previously involving a club named Dundalk. The Dundalk team had beaten Institution 2nd XI 1–0. The sport gradually took a foothold in a developing town, which held strong ties to both the military and the railway infrastructure given its location between Dublin and Belfast, as well as links to local ports. Affiliated to the Leinster Football Association before the start of the 20th century, a team from Dundalk, commonly known as Rovers, took their place in the Leinster Senior League in 1900–01 for the first time. The club continued to exist (as the town's most established club) until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

However, other clubs also began to make their presence felt in the locality. One in particular, the Great Northern Railway Association Club, otherwise known as the Dundalk GNR, founded in September 1903, spawned the modern-day Dundalk Football Club. The Dundalk GNR were located at the Athletic Grounds and competed in the Dundalk and District League from 1905 until 1914, although media coverage remained patchy. Sports coverage was re-instated in the local media in 1919, with the Dundalk and District League re-established in time to start a competition during the 1919–20 season. Included among the teams was a selection representing the Dundalk GNR. The club were also partaking in the Newry League at the time, but political change at a national level was to affect this. Following the formation of the Football Association of the Irish Free State (FAIFS; later to become the Football Association of Ireland or FAI) in Dublin to govern football in the Irish Free State the control of footballing matters in Northern Ireland was left to the Irish Football Association (IFA).

The Dundalk GNR was not involved in the fledgling League of Ireland, which began at the start of the 1921–22 season. It involved only Dublin-based clubs, all of which had stepped up from the Leinster Senior League Senior Division. This ultimately opened the way for the Dundalk GNR to move up to the Leinster Senior League. It was the only club from outside the capital to compete in the 1922–23 season. Its first game was played on 7 October 1922 against Inchicore United and ended in a 2–1 loss. Nevertheless, the club established itself in the top rank, and a third-place finish in the 1925–26 season paved the way for the club's election to the ten-team Free State Senior League at the expense of Pioneers, and ahead of Bendigo F.C. and Drumcondra; the two clubs that had headed the Dundalk GNR in their final season in the Leinster Senior League. The first game in the League of Ireland ended in a 2–1 loss to Fordsons on 21 August. Within four seasons, the club had moved from the Dundalk and District League, through the Leinster Senior League, and was ready to establish itself in the elite Irish Free State Senior League, which included Shelbourne, Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers. The club, still known as the Dundalk GNR, and continuing in the black and amber kit from their pre-First World War origins, travelled to Cork to face Fordsons in its opening match on 21 August 1926. The match ended in a 2–1 defeat.

The club was renamed Dundalk F.C. in 1930 and became the first provincial team to win the league title in 1932–33. The club has an unbroken membership of the League of Ireland, a record shared with only two other members from that time; Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers. The club moved to its current home venue, Oriel Park, in 1936. In the 1970s and 1980s, the club had an impressive record in European competition at home, being undefeated for five years, playing against top opposition in the form of PSV Eindhoven, Hajduk Split, Celtic, Porto and Tottenham Hotspur. With almost fifty trophy-wins, including nine league titles, one First Division title and having contested fourteen FAI Cup finals, the club has one of the most successful histories in League of Ireland football. Almost one hundred of the club's players have gained representative honours for Ireland and the League of Ireland.

Dundalk are currently ranked 226th in the UEFA Club Coefficient Rankings which puts them ahead of Kairat Almaty and Levski Sofia.

On 8 November 2015 Dundalk F.C completed their first double since 1988, by scoring the winning goal in the 107th minute. Leading to them winning the FAI cup adding to their league title. Dundalk F.C had s superb season in 2015.^[1]

On 6 November 2016 Dundalk lost 1–0 to Cork City Fc in the cup final missing out on the double.^[2]

Colours and Crest

The Dundalk GNR colours worn from 1903 until 1927.

The Dundalk GNR colours adopted in 1927.

The coat of arms of the town of Dundalk.

Dundalk F.C. Vintage Crest.

Dundalk F.C. 1998–2009 Crest.

Dundalk's traditional colours are white jerseys (from which they get their nickname, the Lillywhites) and black shorts. However, this has not always been the case. Whilst playing under the auspices of the Great Northern Railway the club played in a black and amber-striped kit until 1927 when the team adopted a strip of white shirts, with blue shield (Coat of Arms of Dundalk) and navy blue shorts.^[7] The GNR moniker was dropped two seasons later and the team was renamed Dundalk F.C. in 1930.

The club's crest features three mythical martlets. The design is an adaptation of the heraldic symbols of Dundalk town's coat of arms, which also depict red marlets on a predominantly white shield.^[8] The original blue shield depicting three 'crows', as they were referred to in the local press, was adopted when the club changed its colours in 1927.

Home grounds

The club played at the Athletic Grounds from 1903 until 1936, when it adopted Oriel Park as its home ground, where it has remained playing to date. Oriel Park, located on the Carrick Road, faces Dundalk railway station and the Great Northern Brewery. The ground's attendance record is 21,000, set in 1979 on the occasion of the club's European Champion Clubs' Cup second round tie against Celtic. The stadium, which now has a 1,600-seater stand, has hosted many memorable games including visits from Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, Ajax and Red Star.

In February 2005, the club announced a major programme for a complete revamp of Oriel Park, which included the conversion of the pitch to an all-weather surface. Dundalk is the first Irish club to make such a conversion and the first club in the world to use the licensed FIFA 2-star surface for competitive league games. Further upgrades have taken place to the main stand, changing-areas and bar facilities. The ultimate aim is to restore the club's standing amongst the premier clubs in Ireland. At the start of the 2007 season, fans of the club were delighted to see the developmental work done on the stadium over the close-season before the season's kick-off. A new roof was installed on the main stand and covered terracing was introduced along the opposite side of the pitch. In November 2016, Dundalk FC resolved its legal issues with Gerry Matthews regarding Oriel Park, and as a result of this process have taken full lease of the stadium.^[9]

Honours

• League of Ireland/Premier Division: 13
  • 1932–33, 1962–63, 1966–67, 1975–76, 1978–79, 1981–82, 1987–88, 1990–91, 1994–95, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018
• FAI Cup: 10
  • 1941–42, 1948–49, 1951–52, 1957–58, 1976–77, 1978–79, 1980–81, 1987–88, 2001–02, 2015
• League of Ireland Cup: 6
  • 1977–78, 1980–81, 1986–87, 1989–90, 2014, 2017
• League of Ireland First Division: 2
  • 2000–01, 2008
• League of Ireland Shield: 2
  • 1966–67, 1971–72
• Dublin City Cup: 5
  • 1937–38, 1942–43, 1948–49, 1967–68, 1968–69
• Top Four Cup: 2
  • 1963–64, 1966–67
• President's Cup: 1
  • 2015
• LFA President's Cup: 9
  • 1930–31, 1951–52, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1979–80, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1988–89, 1989–90
• Dublin and Belfast Intercity Cup: 1
  • 1941–42
• Leinster Senior Cup: 7
  • 1950–51, 1960–61, 1970–71, 1973–74, 1976–77, 1977–78, 2015
• RTÉ Sports Team of the Year Award: 1
  • 2015

Club records

European record

Dundalk FC has had a chequered but nonetheless respectable history in European football.^[10] It was one of the first Irish football teams to play in Europe and the first from the Republic of Ireland to go three rounds in the European Cup. For almost fifty years, Dundalk has played against some of the greatest clubs in Europe, including Liverpool, Celtic, Porto, Tottenham Hotspur, PSV Eindhoven and Ajax.^[11][12] In 2010, Dundalk returned to European competition for the first time since 2002, winning the first qualifying round UEFA Europa League tie. A campaign called BE-TOP (Bring Europe to Oriel Park) was launched to bring the ground up to UEFA standard. The campaign involved securing advance ticket bookings from supporters to upgrade Oriel; the target was 1,000 advance bookings. The number of bookings by the deadline was 1,200 and on 13 April 2010, it was confirmed that Oriel Park would be upgraded and would host its first European game since 1991.^[13] In 2016–17, Dundalk will appear in the group stage of a major European tournament for the first time; a 3–1 victory over BATE Borisov in the third qualifying round of the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League meant they would play in the play-off round of the same competition, where victory would see them play in the Champions League group stage, while defeat would mean dropping down to the Europa League group stage.^[14] On 17 August 2016, in the first leg of the play-off round against Legia Warsaw which was played at the Aviva Stadium, Dundalk lost 2–0.^[15] In the second leg on 23 August 2016, Dundalk took the lead in the game but the conceded a late goal in a 1–1 draw to go out of the competition 3–1 on aggregate.^[16]

Notable matches and results include:

• 1–1 draw (A) and 2–1 win (H) against DOS Utrecht in Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, 1968
• 10–0 defeat (A) and 4–0 defeat (H) against Liverpool, UEFA Cup then record aggregate defeat (14–0) for LoI side in Europe
• 1–1 draw (H) and 2–0 win (Match played in Haarlem, Netherlands, after rioting between rival factions in Dundalk) against Linfield FC in the preliminary round of the European Cup, 1979
• 3–2 defeat (A) and 0–0 draw (H) against Celtic in the 2nd round of the 1979–80 European Cup.^{[17][18] [19]}
• 1–1 draw (H) and 1–0 defeat (A) against Tottenham Hotspur in the 1981 European Cup Winners Cup.
• 1–0 defeat (A) and 3–0 win (H) against BATE Borisov in the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League.
• 1–0 defeat (H) against AZ Alkmaar in the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League.

Overview

Correct as of 2 August 2018

Competition	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
European Cup / UEFA Champions League	28	4	9	15	23	53
UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League	26	7	4	15	20	48
European Cup Winners' Cup / UEFA Cup Winners Cup	8	2	1	5	7	14
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	6	1	1	4	4	25
TOTAL	68	14	15	39	54	140

Past opponents

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1963–64	European Cup	PR	Zürich	0–3	2–1	2–4
1967–68	European Cup	1R	Vasas	0–1	1–8	1–9
1968–69	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	1R	DOS Utrecht	2–1[lower-alpha 1]	1–1	3–2
		2R	Rangers	0–3	1–6	1–9
1969–70	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	1R	Liverpool	0–4	0–10	0–14
1976–77	European Cup	1R	PSV Eindhoven	1–1	0–6	1–7
1977–78	European Cup Winners' Cup	1R	Hajduk Split	1–0	0–4	1–4
1979–80	European Cup	PR	Linfield	1–1	2–0	3–1
		1R	Hibernians	2–0	0–1	2–1
		2R	Celtic	0–0	2–3	2–3
1980–81	UEFA Cup	1R	Porto	0–0	0–1	0–1
1981–82	European Cup Winners' Cup	1R	Fram	4–0	1–2	5–2
		2R	Tottenham Hotspur	1–1	0–1	1–2
1982–83	European Cup	1R	Liverpool	1–4	0–1	1–5
1987–88	European Cup Winners' Cup	1R	Ajax	0–2	0–4	0–6
1988–89	European Cup	1R	Red Star Belgrade	0–5	0–3	0–8
1989–90	UEFA Cup	1R	Wettingen	0–2	0–3	0–5
1991–92	European Cup	1R	Budapest Honvéd	0–2	1–1	1–3
1995–96	UEFA Cup	PR	Malmö FF	0–2	0–2	0–4
2002–03	UEFA Cup	PR	Varteks Varaždin	0–4	0–5	0–9
2010–11	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Grevenmacher	2–1	3–3	5–4
		2Q	Levski Sofia	0–2	0–6	0–8
2014–15	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Jeunesse Esch	3–1	2–0	5–1
		2Q	Hajduk Split	0–2	2–1	2–3
2015–16	UEFA Champions League	2Q	BATE Borisov	0–0	1–2	1–2
2016–17	UEFA Champions League	2Q	FH	1–1	2–2	3–3[lower-alpha 2]
		3Q	BATE Borisov	3–0	0–1	3–1
		PO	Legia Warsaw	0–2	1–1	1–3
	UEFA Europa League	Grp	Zenit Saint Petersburg	1–2	1–2	4th
			AZ	0–1	1–1
			Maccabi Tel Aviv	1–0	1–2
2017–18	UEFA Champions League	2Q	Rosenborg	1–1	1–2 [lower-alpha 3]	2–3
2018–19	UEFA Europa League	1Q	FCI Levadia	2–1	1–0	3–1
		2Q	AEK Larnaca	0–0	0−4	0–4

Notes

1. ↑ The tie went to extra time.
2. ↑ Dundalk won on the away goals rule.
3. ↑ The tie went to extra time.

Players

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Gary Rogers 2 DF Sean Gannon 3 DF Brian Gartland 4 DF Seán Hoare 5 MF Chris Shields 6 MF Stephen O'Donnell (captain) 7 MF Michael Duffy 8 MF John Mountney 9 FW Patrick Hoban 10 MF Jamie McGrath 12 FW Sam Byrne 13 MF Karolis Chvedukas

No. Position Player 14 DF Dane Massey 15 DF Stephen Folan 16 MF Dylan Connolly 17 MF George Poynton 18 MF Robbie Benson 19 FW Ronan Murray 21 DF Daniel Cleary 22 GK Gabriel Sava 30 GK Ross Treacy 33 DF Dean Jarvis 35 MF Patrick McEleney 45 FW Georgie Kelly

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player MF Carlton Ubaezuono (on loan to Galway United until 31 October 2018)

Personnel

Shirt sponsors and kit suppliers

See Also

• List of Dundalk F.C. seasons

References

External links

• Official website
• Dundalk FC Twitter page
• Dundalk F.C. Trust
• Dundalk Talk: Dundalk F.C. Fans Forum
• The History of Dundalk F.C.
• The Lilywhite