Drogheda change in fortunes down to changes at the back

There have been several transformations in the League of Ireland in recent seasons with clubs dramatically changing their standing within the league. One of the most impressive of those has been engineered by Kevin Doherty with his FAI Cup winning and his table-topping Drogheda United.

In nine months, Drogheda have gone from bottom of the Premier Division to the top of the league.

Also recently transformed has been Shelbourne who rose from years in the wilderness to win last year's league title.

Galway United emerged from six struggling seasons in the First Division to establish themselves in the top half of the Premier Division in the last 18 months and Athlone Town’s women have won both league and FAI Cup in the last two years having only joined the Division in 2020.

Going the other way has been Dundalk who have fallen from their dominant position laden with trophies and European success to a humbling relegation to the First Division.

With many of those transformations, the progress has happened gradually over months and even years as teams built their way to success. But for Drogheda, it is possible to pinpoint the specific time the change started. And much of the credit must go to Doherty for making the brave decisions that led to it.

On 12 July 2024, Drogheda suffered a 4-2 loss to not-so-friendly neighbours Dundalk that left them bottom of the league, five points behind the Lilywhites in the relegation play-off position. They were 10 games without a win, with seven of those being defeats.

Having played two-thirds of the season, relegation was staring Drogheda in the face. But Doherty didn’t sit back and let that happen.

His first change was between the sticks. American Luke Dennison had been knocking around the league for five years but had never made a Premier Division appearance. Since being brought into the team, he has started all 20 league games and kept 11 clean sheets. No other team has more than eight in that time.

Dennison's 3.53 saves per-game to the end of the season was second most to Ed McGinty.

Another change was bringing in defender James Bolger who had also not played in the league before, but after his introduction he did not miss a start for the rest of the year.

Bolger led the league in interceptions per 90 minutes at 7.16.

Both Dennison and Bolger made their debuts in the first game post-Dundalk, a 2-0 winover Waterford that brought just a second clean sheet in 17. It started a run where they lost only once in nine.

With those changes in personnel came a change in system. Doherty moved from a back four to a back five.

That additional defender brought a drastic improvement to their record. Up to that point they had conceded 47 goals from 24, practically two per game. Since then, that has more than halved. There have been just 15 put past them in 20 matches which is the fewest in the league during that time.

It is possible that the change in system has had an impact beyond Drogheda for other clubs. Galway United have adopted a similar shape in 2025 while Bohs, Cork City, Derry City and Shelbourne have also tried it at times. Shamrock Rovers and Waterford have also continued their use from 2024.

The biggest area of improvement this brought for Drogheda was in defending set-pieces. Prior to the changes, 15 goals had been conceded from dead balls but there was only one for the rest of the campaign.

The fact that their total of 16 was still the worst in the league for the totality of the season shows how bad things were in the early stages. So far this year, they have only allowed one such goal and that was to a Galway United team who excel in scoring from set-piece situations.

As well as having the extra centre-back for these occasions with the switch, Dennison has had an impact also. His 30 line leaves (coming out to catch or punch a delivery to the box) is double any other keeper this season.

Although less dramatic, there has also been an upward shift in goal-scoring for the Boynesiders. Up until the summer changes, they were scoring exactly one goal per game. Since then, they have improved by 35% getting to 1.35 goals per game with 27 scored from 20.

The ability to soak up pressure defensively has allowed them to be a threat on the counter. Personnel changes were also crucial.

In the aforementioned Dundalk loss, Shane Farrell made his first appearance after moving from Shelbourne. In the game before, Douglas James-Taylor made his debut in claret and blue having joined from Walsall. Farrell would have two goal involvements from midfield while forward James-Taylor contributed eight.

Their system deserves credit as its success has continued this season despite the loss of their two main attackers. James-Taylor has yet to play in 2025 due to injury while top scorer (10) Frantz Pierrot departed for Bosnia-Herzegovina. Warren Davis and Thomas Oluwa have filled the void impressively with four and two goal involvements respectively to date.

With these transformations at both ends of the pitch, Drogheda have turned that into the third most points in the league since Doherty’s changes only trailing St. Pat’s and Shamrock Rovers. That’s not to mention their FAI Cup final victory over Derry City in November.

Table since 20/7/24:

Whether Drogheda can turn that 20-game form into a league title challenge is difficult to tell at this early stage, but if they were even to achieve European qualification via a top-three finish it would be remarkable. Not just based on where they were last July but given that since their league win in 2007, they have only one top six finish (2012).

With this year’s league having the tightest start of the summer era (11 points separating top to bottom) many teams will feel they are in with a shout. In some of Europe’s bigger leagues clubs like Bologna, Union Berlin, Girona and Brest have disrupted the status quo and qualified for the Champions League with Nottingham Forest set to follow. Fairytale stories are still possible.

The next couple of weeks will be a big test of how far Drogheda can go. They travel to Derry on Friday where they have only won once in nine years. That’s followed by an Easter weekend double against two title favourites in Shelbourne and St. Pat’s. Four days later is a trip to unbeaten Galway.

All eyes will be on the league leaders to see what part they may play in the battles at the top of the table in 2025.