2020 League of Ireland First Division

League of Ireland First Division
Season	2020
Dates	21 February 2020 – 27 October 2020
Champions	Drogheda United, 5th title
Promoted	Drogheda United, Longford Town
Matches played	90
Goals scored	265 (2.94 per match)
Top goalscorer	Yousef Mahdy (15)
Biggest home win	UCD 8-0 Wexford; (4 September 2020)
Biggest away win	Cobh Ramblers 0-6 UCD; (12 September 2020)
Highest scoring	UCD 8-0 Wexford; (4 September 2020) Longford Town F.C. 2-6 Galway United; (3 October 2020)
	← 2019 2021 →

The 2020 League of Ireland First Division season was the 36th season of the League of Ireland First Division. The league began on 21 February 2020 and concluded on 27 October 2020. Drogheda United won the league title for a record 5th time, winning promotion to the League of Ireland Premier Division for 2021.[1][2] [3] The Coronavirus pandemic in Ireland halted the season in mid-March as per directive of the Irish Government and the Football Association of Ireland.[4][5] On 13 July 2020, the league announced the season restart with a reduced fixture list of two rounds only (18 games in total, per team for the regular season) and the play-off series as announced pre-season.[6]

Overview

The First Division has 10 teams. Each team plays each other three times for a total of 27 matches in the season. This format was changed after the league was postponed during the COVID 19 pandemic meaning each team would now play each other only two times, once home and once away. UCD were relegated from the 2019 League of Ireland Premier Division. A reserve side of Shamrock Rovers F.C. competed in place of the Limerick team that encountered financial difficulty prior to the commencement of the season. Drogheda United finished top of the league table after a 2-0 away win over Cabinteely sealed the league title and promotion to the League Of Ireland Premier Division for 2021. It was the Drogs' record 5th First Division title. Wexford FC were punished by the FAI after fielding ineligible players during 3 league games. They were deducted the points they had won from these fixtures, and as a result finished bottom of the table.[7]

Teams

Dublin

Dublin teams
Cabinteely
Shamrock Rovers II
UCD

Locations of the First Division teams

Cabinteely

Shamrock Rovers II

UCD

Locations of Dublin First Division teams

Stadia and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Athlone Town	Athlone	Athlone Town Stadium	5,000
Bray Wanderers	Bray	Carlisle Grounds	4,000
Cabinteely	Dublin (Cabinteely)	Stradbrook Road	1,620
Cobh Ramblers	Cobh	St. Colman's Park	3,000
Drogheda United	Drogheda	United Park	2,000
Galway United	Galway	Eamonn Deacy Park	5,000
Longford Town	Longford	Bishopsgate	4,960
Shamrock Rovers II	Dublin (Tallaght)	Tallaght Stadium	8,000
UCD	Dublin (Belfield)	UCD Bowl	3,000
Wexford	Crossabeg	Ferrycarrig Park	2,500

Personnel and kits

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

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Athlone Town	Adrian Carbury	Darren Meenan	Nike	Nitro Sports
Bray Wanderers	Gary Cronin	Paul Keegan	Umbro	Matt Britton Carpets
Cabinteely	Pat Devlin	Conor Keeley	Uhlsport	Edufit
Cobh Ramblers	Stuart Ashton	Paul Hunt	Joma	Metropole Hotel
Drogheda United	Tim Clancy	Jake Hyland	Umbro	Scotch Hall Shopping Center
Galway United	John Caulfield	Shane Duggan	Puma	Comer Property Management
Longford Town	Daire Doyle	Dean Zambra	Macron	Bishopsgate
Shamrock Rovers II	Aidan Price	Darragh Nugent	Umbro	JD Sports
UCD	Andy Myler	Jack Keaney	O'Neill's	O'Neill's
Wexford	Brian O'Sullivan	Dan Tobin	Bodibro	Premier Tickets

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Galway United	Alan Murphy	Sacked	18 August 2020[8]	9th	John Caulfield[9]	21 August 2020

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Drogheda United (C, P)	18	12	3	3	39	17	+22	39	Promotion to League of Ireland Premier Division
2	Bray Wanderers	18	12	2	4	30	13	+17	38	Qualification to Promotion play-offs
3	UCD	18	9	3	6	44	29	+15	30
4	Longford Town (P)	18	9	2	7	26	23	+3	29
5	Galway United	18	7	6	5	26	19	+7	27
6	Cobh Ramblers	18	8	3	7	22	20	+2	27
7	Cabinteely	18	8	2	8	22	33	−11	26
8	Shamrock Rovers II	18	4	3	11	22	28	−6	15
9	Athlone Town	18	4	3	11	23	40	−17	15
10	Wexford	18	2	2	14	10	45	−35	8

Updated to match(es) played on 27 October 2020. Source: SSE Airtricity League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored.[10]
(C) Champion; (P) Promoted.

Results

Matches 1–18

Teams play each other twice (once at home, once away). Wexford forfeited four games 0-3 for fielding ineligible players.[lower-alpha 1][11]

Home \ Away	ATH	BRW	CAB	COB	DRO	GAL	LON	SHA	UCD	WEX
Athlone Town	—	0–1	1–3	2–1	3–3	1–4	0–4	0–4	2–4	3–0
Bray Wanderers	3–1	—	3–0	0–0	0–1	0–1	3–0	1–0	2–0	2–0
Cabinteely	1–1	4–2	—	1–0	0–2	0–1	0–3	1–0	0–3	1–5
Cobh Ramblers	3–2	1–2	1–2	—	0–2	2–2	2–0	0–0	0–6	3–0
Drogheda United	0–2	3–1	5–1	0–1	—	1–0	0–1	3–2	5–1	2–0
Galway United	2–2	0–0	0–2	0–1	1–3	—	0–1	2–1	2–2	1–0
Longford Town	2–0	0–2	1–3	0–1	1–1	2–6	—	2–0	3–1	3–1
Shamrock Rovers II	3–1	0–2	0–2	0–1	2–2	1–1	1–2	—	2–5	3–0
UCD	2–1	1–3	5–1	1–0	1–3	0–3	0–0	3–1	—	8–0
Wexford	0–1	1–3	0–3	0–4	0–3	0–0	2–1	0–2	1–1	—

Updated to match(es) played on 27 October 2020 including revised results for Wexford following FAI ruling. Source: SSE Airtricity League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Note Wexford F.C.

On 14 October 2020, the FAI found Wexford F.C. to be in breach of rules by fielding ineligible players in 4 matches - away to Athlone Town, Cobh Ramblers, Shamrock Rovers II and the home match against Cabinteely. They forfeited each of the above games with a 0-3 scoreline with the original results expunged.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Last updated: 27 October 2020.
Source: SSE Airtricity League First Division Statistics

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Yousef Mahdy	UCD	15
2	Colm Whelan	UCD	14
3	Mark Doyle	Drogheda United	13
4	Brandon Kavanagh	Shamrock Rovers II	9
4	Rob Manley	Longford Town	9
5	Ronan Manning	Athlone Town	8
6	Gary Shaw	Bray Wanderers	7
7	Darragh Lynch	Bray Wanderers	6
7	Sam Verdon	Longford Town	6
8	Shane Barnes	Cabinteely	5

Play-Offs

First Division Play-Off Semi-finals

31 October 2020	Bray Wanderers	0–1	Galway United	Carlisle Grounds
15:00			Wilson Waweru 86'

31 October 2020	UCD	2–3 (a.e.t.)	Longford Town	UCD Bowl
15:00	Colm Whelan 18' Yousef Mahdy 110'		Joe Gorman 90' Joe Gorman 113' Dean Byrne 120'

First Division Play-Off Final

6 November 2020	Galway United	1–2	Longford Town	UCD Bowl
19:45	Vinny Faherty 88'	Report	Karl Chambers 43' Aodh Dervin 82'	Attendance: 0 (Behind closed doors) Referee: Mark Moynihan

Promotion/Relegation Play-Off

15 November 2020	Shelbourne	0-1	Longford Town	Richmond Park
14:30		Report	Rob Manley 46'	Attendance: 0 Referee: Neil Doyle

[12]

References

"Drogheda seal promotion as play-off places are decided". RTE Sport. 27 October 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
"Drogheda seal promotion to Premier Division". The 42. 27 October 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
"SSE Airtricity League Fixtures". sseairtricityleague.ie. League of Ireland. 13 February 2020. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
"FAI postpones all football activity with immediate effect". FAI. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
"Irish sports events cancelled". irishmirror.ie. 13 March 2020.
"2020 SSE Airtricity League - Fixture List". SSE Airtricity League. League of Ireland. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
"SSE Airtricity League Club Licensing". sseairtricityleague.ie. League of Ireland. 12 February 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
"Club legend Alan Murphy leaves role as Galway boss". The42.ie. 18 August 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
"Galway United appoint John Caulfield as new manager". The42.ie. 21 August 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
"First Division 2020". Soccerway. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
"Wexford FC found in breach of fielding an ineligible player". SSE Airtricity League. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
"2020 Season SSE Airtricity League Fixtures" (PDF). www.sseairtricityleague.ie. SSE Airtricity League. 18 October 2020. Retrieved 29 October 2020.

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[11] On 14 October 2020, the FAI found Wexford F.C. to be in breach of rules by fielding ineligible players in 4 matches - away to Athlone Town, Cobh Ramblers, Shamrock Rovers II and the home match against Cabinteely. They forfeited each of the above games with a 0-3 scoreline with the original results expunged.

[1] "Drogheda seal promotion as play-off places are decided". RTE Sport. 27 October 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2020.

[2] "Drogheda seal promotion to Premier Division". The 42. 27 October 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2020.

[3] "SSE Airtricity League Fixtures". sseairtricityleague.ie. League of Ireland. 13 February 2020. Retrieved 19 February 2020.

[FAIPostpone-4] "FAI postpones all football activity with immediate effect". FAI. Retrieved 30 April 2020.

[Coronavirus_stops_league-5] "Irish sports events cancelled". irishmirror.ie. 13 March 2020.

[6] "2020 SSE Airtricity League - Fixture List". SSE Airtricity League. League of Ireland. Retrieved 26 September 2020.

[7] "SSE Airtricity League Club Licensing". sseairtricityleague.ie. League of Ireland. 12 February 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2020.

[8] "Club legend Alan Murphy leaves role as Galway boss". The42.ie. 18 August 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.

[9] "Galway United appoint John Caulfield as new manager". The42.ie. 21 August 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.

[10] "First Division 2020". Soccerway. Retrieved 21 February 2020.

[WexForfeit-12] "Wexford FC found in breach of fielding an ineligible player". SSE Airtricity League. Retrieved 16 October 2020.

[13] "2020 Season SSE Airtricity League Fixtures" (PDF). www.sseairtricityleague.ie. SSE Airtricity League. 18 October 2020. Retrieved 29 October 2020.