2018 League of Ireland First Division

League of Ireland First Division
Season	2018
Dates	23 February – 22 September 2018
Champions	UCD
Promoted	UCD; Finn Harps
Matches played	135
Goals scored	397 (2.94 per match)
Top goalscorer	David O'Sullivan (Shelbourne, 15 goals)
Biggest home win	Shelbourne 7–0 Athlone Town (6 April 2018); Wexford 7–0 Athlone Town (20 April 2018)
Biggest away win	Wexford 0–8 UCD (7 May 2018)
Highest scoring	Wexford 1–8 Drogheda United (16 March 2018)
Average attendance	422
	← 2017 2019 → All statistics correct as of 2 November 2018.

The 2018 League of Ireland First Division season is the 34th season of the League of Ireland First Division. The league began on 23 February 2018 and will conclude in October 2018. Contrary to the previous editions, this tournament will have 10 teams, which is the largest number since 2011 season, and will return the promotion/relegation playoffs.

Overview[]

The First Division has 10 teams. Each team plays each other three times for a total of 27 matches in the season.

On 22 December 2016, the FAI announced that the league would be restructured into two 10-team divisions from the 2018 season onwards, one of the recommendations made in the 2015 Conroy Report.^[2]

Teams[]

Dublin

Dublin teams
Cabinteely
Shelbourne
UCD

Locations of the First Division teams

Shelbourne

UCD

Cabinteely

Locations of Dublin First Division teams

Stadia and locations[]

Team	Location	Stadium
Athlone Town	Athlone	Athlone Town Stadium
Cabinteely	Cabinteely	Stradbrook Road
Cobh Ramblers	Cobh	St. Colman's Park
Drogheda United	Drogheda	United Park
Finn Harps	Ballybofey	Finn Park
Galway United	Galway	Eamonn Deacy Park
Longford Town	Longford	City Calling Stadium
Shelbourne	Drumcondra	Tolka Park
UCD	Belfield	UCD Bowl
Wexford	Crossabeg	Ferrycarrig Park

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	Aaron Callaghan	Niall Scullion	Nike	Nitro Sports
Cabinteely	Pat Devlin	Daire Doyle	Uhlsport	Geoghegan Home Extensions
Cobh Ramblers	Stephen Henderson	Paul Hunt	Legea	Tony & William O'Shea Fuels Rushbrooke
Drogheda United	Tim Clancy	Sean Thornton	CX+ Sport	Scotch Hall Shopping Center
Finn Harps	Ollie Horgan	Ciaran Coll	Joma	McGettigan Group
Galway United	Shane Keegan	Colm Horgan	Uhlsport	Comer Property Management
Longford Town	Neale Fenn	Kevin O'Connor	Legea	City Calling
Shelbourne	Owen Heary	Dean Delaney	Macron	Dublin City University
UCD	Collie O'Neill	Gary O'Neill	O'Neills	O'Neills
Wexford	Damian Locke	Craig McCabe	Bodibro	Premier Tickets

League table[]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	UCD (C, P)	27	17	6	4	59	29	+30	57	Promotion to League of Ireland Premier Division
2	Finn Harps (Q)	27	16	6	5	46	22	+24	54	Qualification to Promotion play-offs
3	Shelbourne (Q)	27	13	11	3	52	21	+31	50
4	Drogheda United (Q)	27	14	7	6	50	27	+23	49
5	Longford Town	27	13	6	8	54	36	+18	45
6	Galway United	27	10	7	10	41	36	+5	37
7	Cabinteely	27	9	3	15	32	45	−13	30
8	Cobh Ramblers	27	8	5	14	24	41	−17	29
9	Wexford	27	4	5	18	23	59	−36	17
10	Athlone Town	27	1	4	22	16	81	−65	7

Source: SSE Airtricity League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored.^[3]
(C) Champion; (P) Promoted; (Q) Qualified to the phase indicated

Results[]

Matches 1–18[]

Teams played each other twice (once at home, once away).

Home \ Away	ATH	CAB	COB	DRO	FHA	GAL	LON	SHE	UCD	WEX
Athlone Town	—	1–2	1–4	0–1	1–1	0–3	1–1	0–5	1–3	3–0
Cabinteely	4–0	—	0–1	3–2	0–1	1–2	1–0	2–0	2–0	0–1
Cobh Ramblers	1–0	1–0	—	1–5	0–2	0–0	0–1	0–3	0–2	2–1
Drogheda United	6–0	2–0	2–1	—	2–1	2–2	1–1	1–1	2–0	2–0
Finn Harps	4–0	1–0	0–1	2–1	—	1–0	2–4	1–1	1–3	1–0
Galway United	4–1	3–1	3–0	0–1	1–2	—	0–0	1–2	2–0	4–1
Longford Town	5–1	3–0	2–2	1–0	1–2	3–2	—	1–1	0–2	3–0
Shelbourne	7–0	0–0	1–0	1–1	0–0	2–0	3–2	—	1–1	4–1
UCD	3–0	3–1	3–1	2–0	3–2	1–1	1–5	2–1	—	3–2
Wexford	7–0	0–1	1–1	1–8	1–1	0–0	0–2	0–1	0–8	—

Updated to match(es) played on 29 June 2018. Source: SSE Airtricity League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 19–27[]

Teams play each other once.

Home \ Away	ATH	CAB	COB	DRO	FHA	GAL	LON	SHE	UCD	WEX
Athlone Town	—	1–3	0–0	—	1–3	—	—	—	0–1	—
Cabinteely	—	—	2–0	2–2	—	—	—	1–1	—	1–2
Cobh Ramblers	—	—	—	0–2	0–1	1–2	—	—	2–2	—
Drogheda United	2–1	—	—	—	0–1	2–2	2–1	—	0–3	—
Finn Harps	—	7–1	—	—	—	2–0	3–0	0–0	—	3–0
Galway United	4–1	3–2	—	—	—	—	1–4	—	—	1–1
Longford Town	3–0	4–1	1–2	—	—	—	—	—	2–2	3–0
Shelbourne	2–2	—	3–1	0–1	—	3–0	6–1	—	—	—
UCD	—	4–1	—	—	1–1	2–0	—	1–1	—	—
Wexford	2–0	—	0–2	0–0	—	—	—	1–2	0–3	—

Updated to match(es) played on 22 September 2018. Source: SSE Airtricity League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers[]

As of 22 September 2018

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[4]
1	David O'Sullivan	Shelbourne	15
2	Georgie Kelly	UCD	14
3	Dylan McGlade	Longford Town	13
4	Sean Brennan	Drogheda United	11
4	James English	Shelbourne	11
6	Conor Barry	Galway United	10
7	Eoin McCormack	Galway United	9
	Gary O'Neill	UCD
	Mikey Place	Finn Harps
	Sam Verdon	Longford Town

Play-Offs[]

The second, third and fourth placed First Division teams played off to decide who would play Limerick, the ninth placed team from the Premier Division. The winner of this play off would play in the 2019 Premier Division.^[5]

Semi-finals

5 October 2018	Drogheda United	0–1	Shelbourne	United Park
19:45		Report	English 25'

8 October 2018	Shelbourne	1–2 (2-4 p)	Drogheda United	Tolka Park
19:45	Evans 77'	Report	Brennan 33' Lyons 62'
	Penalties
	O'Sullivan Evans Fitzgerald Farrell		Lyons Brennan Gallagher McCaffrey Doyle

2–2 on aggregate. Drogheda United win on penalties.

Finals

12 October 2018	Drogheda United	1–1	Finn Harps	United Park
19:45	Kelly 13'	Report	Boyle 67'

19 October 2018	Finn Harps	2–0	Drogheda United	Finn Park
19:45	Kavanagh 18' Boyle 67'	Report

Finn Harps win 3–1 on aggregate.

Relegation-promotion match

29 October 2018	Finn Harps	1–0	Limerick	Finn Park
19:45 GMT	McCourt 35' (pen.)	Report		Attendance: 2,379 Referee: Robert Harvey

2 November 2018	Limerick	0–2	Finn Harps	Markets Field
19:45 GMT		Report	Timlin 45+1' Boyle 80'	Referee: Graham Kelly

Finn Harps won 3–0 on aggregate and were promoted to 2019 Premier Division. Limerick were relegated to the 2019 First Division.

References[]

^ "From the Archives - extratime.ie League of Ireland Attendance Report 2019". extratime. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
^ Mackey, Liam (23 December 2016). "It's three down, one up for LOI season". The Irish Examiner. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
^ "First Division 2017 - Season rules". Scoresway. Archived from the original on 24 April 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
^ "Extratime.com - Extratime.ie - Top Scorers - 2018 League of Ireland First Division".
^ "Ireland 2018". www.rsssf.com. Retrieved 7 October 2018.

[1] "From the Archives - extratime.ie League of Ireland Attendance Report 2019". extratime. Retrieved 30 August 2020.

[reform-2] Mackey, Liam (23 December 2016). "It's three down, one up for LOI season". The Irish Examiner. Retrieved 6 January 2017.

[3] "First Division 2017 - Season rules". Scoresway. Archived from the original on 24 April 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2017.

[4] "Extratime.com - Extratime.ie - Top Scorers - 2018 League of Ireland First Division".

[rsssf2018-5] "Ireland 2018". www.rsssf.com. Retrieved 7 October 2018.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

v t League of Ireland First Division
2022 clubs	Athlone Town Bray Wanderers Cobh Ramblers Cork City Galway United Longford Town Treaty United Waterford Wexford
Seasons	1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
See also	Shield