Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny has signed a contract extension which will keep him at the club until 2018.
Kenny, who has led the Lilywhites to back-to-back league crowns and FAI Cup and EA Sports Cup wins since taking over for the 2013 season, would have been a free agent at the end of the current campaign.
The Dubliner said his time in charge had been "an incredible journey".
"My contract was up in November so I only had a short period of time left to run," he told dundalkfc.com. "I have agreed to stay on as manager for the next three years.
"This is my fourth year here as manager and when I came to the club we had nothing. I had a blank canvas, the team finished bottom. A lot of people found it difficult to be optimistic but I believed that with hard work and dedication that we could achieve a lot.
“It has been incredible really the last two seasons, winning the two league titles, the FAI Cup and the EA Sports Cup as well as the Leinster Senior Cup and President’s Cup.
"It has been an incredible journey from bottom to top. John Mountney and Chris Shields have been a huge part of that from the team that played in the relegation play-off. Here they are as double league champions so it’s a great story from their point of view.”
"We have got players with real character. I think over the last couple of seasons we have seen that in abundance"
Kenny also paid tribute to his double-winning players' efforts, saying they had "real character". The defending champions have won their first three league games this season.
“It is a unique group of players," he said. "They have really been special. It has been a great journey. It has never been about any individuals. It has been the collective strength of the squad and the group.
"There’s a real sense of teamwork when we are attacking and defending. Even though the team comes first, we really encourage our players to fulfil their individual talent within the framework of the team.
“We want the players to trust their creative instincts to maximise their talent.
“We have got players with real character. I think over the last couple of seasons we have seen that in abundance but the challenge is to sustain it. It’s not an easy challenge.
"Because of other issues Oriel Park has stood still so we have had to overcome that as a group. We have to put that to the back of our minds and focus on our own thing.
"That can be a frustration to people off the pitch because you want to continually move forward. We have to collectively sustain the level that we have been at. We have only lost one of the last forty-eight in league and FAI Cup. That’s a level of consistency we want to keep.
“Every single day we are focused. Over the last two seasons we have played ninety-nine competitive games plus fifteen friendlies in shortened seasons. Every three or four days we have been playing so you have to have that relentless focus. You have to retain that hunger.”
