A Brief History of Shamrock Rovers

8/13/2019 A Brief History of Shamrock Rovers

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Brief History of Shamrock RoversLike most football clubs, Shamrock Rovers had very

humble beginnings. The club was formed in 1901 in the

city of Dublin in an area where the districts of Ringsend

and Irishtown meet. The very first meeting took place at

number four Irishtown Road but it wasn't until the

second meeting was held around the corner in

Shamrock Avenue that the name Shamrock Rovers was

decided upon.

The new club immediately registered with the Leinster

Football Association but spent the first two years playing

friendly games. It didn't take long though for the first


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piece of silverware to arrive as Rovers were crowned

County Dublin League winners in 1904/05. That same

season the club also captured the Leinster Junior Cup

when they beat Dundalk 2-1 in the final at Dalymount

Park.

Shamrock Rovers then took a further step up when, in

1905, they joined the Leinster Junior League and went

on to win the LJL league title as well as retain the

Leinster Junior Cup. Within the few years since

formation the club had grown considerably. The


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committee believed that the time was right to take a

further step forward and they entered the team into the

Leinster Senior League for the 1906/07 season.

However, as the season began it became obvious that

Rovers were suffering problems in trying to get players

out and when they failed to secure a private ground,

which they were required to do as members of the LSL,

they were forced to pull out of football.

The 1920's were very successful times for Rovers. The

Ringsend men won the title in their very first season as

members of the League of Ireland scoring an all-time

record of seventy-seven goals and suffering just one

defeat in the process. By now Rovers had secured their

own ground on the Milltown Road, which was only a

short walk from their support base of Ringsend-

Irishtown-Sandymount.

The title came to Milltown again in 1924/25 when they

also won the FAI Cup having beaten rivals Shelbourne


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2-1 at Dalymount Park before 25,000 spectators. The

emergence of the famous 'Four F's' in the Rovers

forward line, Fullam, Fagan, Farrell and Flood, was to

capture the public imagination.

In 1926 Shamrock Rovers moved from their first pitch at

Milltown to another one which was located just behind

the original ground. As the decades progressed they

developed this ground by building covered stands and

terracing and crowds of up to 30,000 were often

recorded for the big games. Rovers soon became

known as the 'Cup Specialists' as they captured the FAI

Cup five years in a row from 1929 to 1933. It was in

1931/32 that they had won their second double. It was

at this time that players such as Bob Fullam, David

'Babby' Byrne, William 'Sacky' Glen, Dinny Doyle and

Charlie Jordan were all household names. It was in

1927 that Rovers first donned the green and white

hooped jerseys and soon earned themselves the

nickname of the 'Hoops'.


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The League title managed to evade Rovers during the

1940's but they did win the FAI Cup in 1944, 1945 and

1948. A new record was set in 1945 when Rovers beat

Bohemians in the FAI Cup with an all-time high

attendance of 41,238. It was in 1942 that an inside

forward by the name of Paddy Coad was to join the club

from Waterford. At the time nobody could have

envisaged the impact that Coad was to have on the

Milltown club, he was to win every honour in the game


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including eleven international caps and he was to

captain the Hoops to unprecedented success in the next

decade.

A brave decision was made by the club in 1957 to enter

a team into the European Cup, the first time for an Irish

club to do so. The Hoops were handed a red-hot

challenge when they were drawn against the mighty

Manchester United (the 'Busby Babes') in the

preliminary round. A United team, boasting a superior

fitness, ran Rovers ragged in the first leg at Dalymount

and ran out 6-0 winners with three of the goals coming

in the final ten minutes. Paddy Coad said afterwards that

Rovers had learned from the experience and the return

leg was a different story as United had to fight hard to

get a 3-2 win.

They went on a Cup winning run from 1964 to 1969 and

in doing so beat their own record of five in a row from

the early 1930s. But while Rovers had restored their


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mantle of Cup kingpins the league belonged to

Waterford.

There were many great European nights during the

sixties in particular when Rovers entertained the cream

of Europe including OGC Nice, Valencia, Rapid Vienna,

Real Zaragosa, Bayern Munich, Cardiff City and Schalke

04. The highlight of Rovers' participation in Europe

came in 1966 when they met the German giants Bayern

Munich in the second leg of the Cup Winners Cup. A

star-studded German side took the lead in the first leg at

Dalymount Park but Billy Dixon equalised for the Hoops

to make it 1-1. Having fallen two goals behind at the

Olympic Stadium in Munich, with goals from Bobby

Gilbert and Liam Tuohy Rovers got back on level terms

and ahead in the tie on away goals. However, disaster

struck just minutes from the final whistle when Gerd

Muller broke through to score a third for Bayern and so it

ended 3-2 on the night to the Germans and 4-3 on

aggregate.


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The 80s was a time of huge successfor Rovers and the

era became known as the 'Four in a Row' as they won

the league in 84, 85, 86 and 87. Although UCD denied

Rovers the double in 1984, they did manage to achieve

the feat in 1985, 1986 and 1987.


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Tragedy was to strike in 1987 when, just as the season

was coming to an end, the news leaked out that the

Kilcoynes had sold the Milltown ground for property

development. Fury erupted amongst the Hoops faithful

who boycotted the alternative venue of Tolka Park and

the club was brought to its knees. In 1988 the Kilcoynes

sold out to a consortium of interested fans led by John

McNamara but efforts to buy back Milltown failed and

the ground was lost forever.

Roddy Collins' brief tenure as manager of the Hoops

came to an end in 2005 when the team finished second

last in the Premier Division and had to face First Division

Dublin City in a promotion-relegation play off. Sadly for

Rovers, the club was condemmed to the First Division

for the 2006 season after losing 3-2 on aggregate to the

'Vikings'.

In 2008, Michael O'Neill stepped down from the post of

manager at Scottish League club Brechin City to accept


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the challenge of managing Shamrock Rovers. He

brought in Trevor Croly as his assistant and former

Northern Ireland 'keeper Tommy Wright as Goalkeeper

Coach. Former Rovers' midfielder Shane Robinson

made a return to the club as O'Neill swooped also for

'Robo's' former Drogheda United teammates Ollie Cahill

and Stephen Bradley. The new manager also brought in

a number of players from the Scottish League including

the relatively unknown Gary Twigg. It wasn't to be long

though before Twigg opened his account at Rovers and

became an instant hit with the fans.

The day that Hoops fans had long awaited finally

happened on Friday, 13th March, when the team took to

the pitch at Tallaght Stadium for the very first time. The

capacity was restricted to just 3,500 at the semi-built

stadium and such was the interest in the occasion that

the club could easily have sold four times that amount.

Sligo Rovers, who provided the opposition in the final

league game ever at Milltown in 1987, were at the


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centre of Shamrock Rovers' history once again. The

game ended 2-1 in favour of the Hoops after Twigg

became the first player to score at Tallaght; Dessie

Baker got the second. Sligo's Gavin Peers made history

too by becoming the first opposition player to score at

Tallaght. With the club settling in to their new home, the

eyes of the football world were once again looking at

Shamrock Rovers. Unable for twenty-two years to stage

prestigious friendly games on their own turf, the Hoops

benefited immensely through their new circumstances

by welcoming Newcastle United, Real Madrid and Hibs

during the month of July in a 'Festival of Football'.


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The East Stand at Tallaght Stadium was opened on

Saturday, 22nd August when Dundalk were the visitors.

That brought the capacity of the ground up to just under

6,000. With the Hoops in contention for the league title

right up to the end of the season, crowds of around

5,000 were the norm at home games. Rovers went on

an unbeaten run of twenty-two league games which was

only brought to an end by Cork City at Tallaght on 20th

October. That defeat effectively put paid to any hopes

that the Hoops had of winning their first league title since

1993/94. They did however finish runners-up to Bohs

and guaranteed themselves a place in the UEFA Europa

Cup in 2010. Striker Gary Twigg, a 2009 signing from

Scottish League side Brechin City, contributed

handsomely to the effort and finished the season as top

goalscorer in the Premier Division with twenty-four

goals. Twigg was rewarded for his exploits when he

received the PFAI Premier Division Player of the Year

Award for the 2009 season.


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The 2010 season proved to be a memorable one with

the Premier Division title coming to Tallaght in dramatic

style. The final series of games played on Friday, 29th

October, saw the Hoops clinch the title after a 2-2 draw

with Bray Wanderers at the Carlisle Grounds. Across the

city, Rovers' arch rivals Bohs were also going for the title

and defeat for Rovers coupled with a Bohs win against

Dundalk would have guaranteed a third successive title

for the 'Gypsies'. Bohs won their game 3-1 but Rovers

did enough at the Carlisle Grounds with goals from Gary

Twigg and Thomas Stewart to secure the title on goal

difference.


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European football returned to Shamrock Rovers in 2010

and having eliminated Israeli side Bnei Yehuda from the

UEFA Europa Cup 2nd Qualifying Round the Hoops set

up an historic meeting with Italian giants Juventus in the

next round. The Italians won the first leg at Tallaght by

2-0 but an expected rout of the Hoops in the away leg

didn't materialise as the Dublin side put it up to their

more illustrious opponents losing just 1-0 after a

fantastic performance in heavy rain.

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A Brief History of Shamrock Rovers