It’s four-in-a-row for Stephen Bradley and his Shamrock Rovers team after Friday night's 2-0 victory over St Patrick's Athletic in Inchicore on Friday night. It’s the latest the Hoops have clinched the title in this run, with their smallest points-per-game tally and with their least amount of wins. The champions haven’t been firing on all cylinders for most of the season, but they’re still too good for the chasing pack. Let’s look back at how the 2023 SSE Airtricity League of Ireland was won.
27 October 2023; Lee Grace, left, and Johnny Kenny of Shamrock Rovers celebrate after the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division match between St Patrick's Athletic and Shamrock Rovers at Richmond Park in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
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Early season problems
Announced last December, Liam Burt’s move from cross-city rivals Bohemians was the only permanent transfer in to the champions’ squad. He was joined by loan moves for Estonian international Mark Poom, Johnny Kenny from Celtic and the returning Trevor Clarke. The Hoops were clearly still the most settled squad so it came as a shock to everyone when their early season form was so poor.
After defeat to Derry City in the President’s Cup, Rovers would lose again to City in Tallaght in the middle of a winless run of 6 games to open their league campaign. Head Coach Stephen Bradley preached patience, as he claimed that the results didn’t match Rovers’ performances.
The league winning run
Bradley was proven correct as the team would win 9 of the next 10 with the only blemish being a 2-2 draw at home to Shels where they showed tremendous character to come from 2-0 down. The wins included 2-0 away wins against early-season pace setters Bohemians and eventual “challengers” Derry City and St Patrick’s Athletic. After the games on St Patrick’s Day, Rovers were 10 points behind Bohemians. Within 2 months they had overtaken them, and the rest of the league to sit on top
Surprise defeats to Drogheda United in Tallaght and Cork City in Turners Cross, allowed Derry City to temporarily go top towards the end of May before the Candystripes went on a run of one win in seven. That run included a win for Rovers in Tallaght with Rory Gaffney once again proving he’s a big game player.
The summer wobbles
After defeating Derry, with everyone expecting Rovers to coast home, they had a summer they’ll want to forget. Defeat in the league in Oriel Park was followed by a scoreless draw in Drogheda with many thinking Rovers were distracted by upcoming European adventures. They proved to be pretty disastrous for the club, losing home and away to Icelandic champs Breidablik in the Champions League, before losing to Ferencvaros of Hungary in the Europa Conference League.
Sandwiched in between the two European ties, Rovers lost in Dundalk again – this time in the FAI Cup. Rovers had a winless run of 7 games including 6 defeats and 6 games where they didn’t score. In May, when they were flying, Bradley had been approached by Lincoln City. By the end of July, some were questioning his decision to stay with Rovers.
Back on track
Rovers beat Cork City at home in early August and they haven’t been beaten since. Their home form has carried their season with 12 wins in the last 14 games in the league in Tallaght. Since losing to Drogheda in May, they’ve won 8 straight home games and only conceded once. The mid-season return from injury of Alan Mannus helping solidify their dominance in Dublin 24.
The last big chance for Derry City was the game between the top 2 on Foyleside in mid-September. The home side started strongly and took the lead near the hour mark but Rovers, as they have done all season, performed when they needed it most deservedly drew level late on through Graham Burke’s penalty.
Early on in the season, Bohemians had the chance to pull away from the pack and faltered. Derry City had several opportunities throughout the season to take control of the title race and each time failed to do so. Late on, a rejuvenated St Patrick’s Athletic side under Jon Daly came closest to putting pressure on Champions, but they dropped points at crucial stages of the run in.
It left Rovers, spluttering for half the season, with 3 games in which to clinch the title and Friday night’s win in Inchicore finally got them over the line. It completes a remarkable four-in-a-row and will rightly be celebrated as one of the greatest achievements in the club’s long and proud history. There are plenty of questions to be answered about next year, but for now, Shamrock Rovers remain the best team in the land.
