The record books don't differentiate between league titles won by 15 points and by grinding out a 1-0 win on the final day.
History will show that Shelbourne were the league’s best team of 2024.
That is all in the past now and a new 2025 season means Shels and nine other teams start again in search of glory. Every team, even the champions, have been working hard over the off-season to improve their side. But, what key improvement must the top teams make to bring themselves to title success?
The champions, Shamrock Rovers, St Patrick's Athletic and Derry City are viewed as most likely to challenge. After the tightest season since 2003 with just 37 points from top to bottom (the average the previous five full seasons was 64), many other teams may believe they can contend with the right improvements.
However, the last two seasons saw those same clubs finish in the top four places.
That is only the fourth season (also 2005-06, 2014-15 and 2016-17) where the top four remained the same for consecutive seasons. Each can have legitimate confidence of staking a title claim. Shamrock Rovers have 11 straight years in the top four with Derry and Pat’s doing so each year since 2020.
So what are the key improvements Damien Duff, Stephen Bradley, Stephen Kenny and Tiernan Lynch will be seeking?
Shelbourne – More big wins
Shelbourne won the 2024 league title with a goal difference of just +13. No team has won the league with a number that low since previous Tolka Park side Drumcondra did so in their last ever league title win in 1965 (a 22-game season).
The last team to win with lower was also Drums in 1949 with +11 over a season, with exactly half as many games as are currently played. In the summer era, the average for a league champion is +39.
Looking at the six lowest in league history, it is a strangely common trait between those two clubs:
That looks unsustainable for 2025 and it nearly was in 2024. Shelbourne had 13 single goal wins, eight being 1-0, the most of any team since Cork City had 14 in 2014 (nine were 1-0).
At the end of June, Shels topped the table and it looked like their narrow winning with 1.17 goals per game would be enough. But over the next ten games their scoring dipped to 0.7 goals per game and they won just once. Remarkably eight points from the next 10 games was enough to remain top but they would need nine from their last three to take the title.
They did so by breaking type in the next two games. Coming from 1-0 down against Waterford was their first win from behind all season. They added a third goal in that game and a second one week later after scoring first against Drogheda for just their seventh and eighth goals of the season from a winning position. Only Galway United scored fewer while leading.
The defending champions may want to continue more of that late form to keep ahead of the chasing pack.
Shamrock Rovers- Win in Dublin
2024 was a landmark year for Shamrock Rovers playing European games in places like Prague, Vienna and London. But domestically they didn’t have the success of the previous four years and much of that was down to their results in Dublin.
Dublin Derby table:
Their poor form was in stark contrast to recent seasons which saw them lose just one of the previous 23 derbies coming into the season with 16 wins in those. The Hoops struggled particularly away from home losing four and winning none at Dalymount, Tolka or Richmond Park.
It wasn’t just in games played in the capital against Dublin sides where they underperformed, their usually strong home form abandoned them also. They came into the season having had the league’s best home record for four consecutive seasons. Over that time, they had 40 more home points (156) than any other team (they also had the most away but only by 20) with a goal difference (+94) more than next best.
Over the first 13 home games the Tallaght side’s win rate halved from 76% to 38% and they had the league’s seventh most home points. By the end of the season they had three losses, equal to their total from 2020 to 2023 inclusive. All three losses were by more than one goal. The last time they had lost at Tallaght by more than one was June 2018 against Dundalk 5-2.
They will need to quickly turnaround their form in these games in 2025 as the first three gameweeks of the season sees them play Dublin games against Bohemians and Shelbourne.
St Patrick's Athletic - Faster start
Stephen Kenny arrived at Richmond Park in May 2024 after a very disappointing start to St Pat’s' season. Though it wasn’t for the first time. With half of last season’s games played, only Drogheda United (15) and Dundalk (13) had fewer points than the Saints (19). They were on the back foot after losing their second, third and fourth games of the season.
In 2023, they lost three in-a-row under Tim Clancy early and they were in ninth place after one win from their first six. A third defeat on the trot on May Day meant they were seventh and a managerial change followed.
The year before they lost back-to-back in their second and third games and by Good Friday they were already nine points behind the leaders with four losses from 10. A look at their total losses in the first round of fixtures over the last three seasons combined shows no team playing each season has lost more and their total is more than double Shamrock Rovers and Derry City combined:
They will look to Kenny for answers to this problem, but his early season record with Dundalk wasn’t the best.
Across his six seasons, Cork City took two more points than them in the first eight games of those seasons. Over the other weeks, Dundalk outperformed them by 47. With games against Derry City and Shamrock Rovers within four days of early March, their early season credentials will be tested.
Derry City – Home points
While it may seem strange to say that a team who at the end of June had five more home points than any other needs to improve their home record, the story is told in their last five at The Brandywell.
They drew four games in a row 1-1 before losing on the final day to Shelbourne 1-0. In all four of the draws, City went one behind in the first half. Over the full season, they conceded the first goal at home nine times. That’s the joint most with Bohemians. They continually gave themselves a mountain to ascent that they couldn’t keep climbing.
It may be a small sample size to highlight as an issue, but home form has been a struggle in Derry for too long. In the three previous seasons their position in the home league table was worse than away with them winning more road points than home in both the 2021 and 2022 season.
One person who did perform well at home (including two from three starts in their last five) was the newly acquired Patrick Hoban. He scored 12 of his 14 goals on home turf. The person who could provide the solution may be a new face but one employed off the pitch.
New manager Tiernan Lynch led his Larne team to a 27-match unbeaten home run between November 2022 and April 2024 as part of back-to-back league title runs. That’s the type of form the faithful in Derry will be wishing to see.
All four clubs have been active in the transfer market showing a keen awareness that improvements are needed to come out on top this November.
This week saw the original Fab Four win big when The Beatles won a Grammy award 61 years after their first. That longevity of success doesn’t happen in the League of Ireland with top fours rarely repeating in consecutive years.
Six other teams will be looking to crash the party but pressure and expectations are strongly on Shelbourne, Shamrock Rovers, St Patrick’s Athletic and Derry City to stay in front.
