2009 League of Ireland First Division

The 2009 League of Ireland First Division season was the 25th season of the League of Ireland First Division. The First Division was contested by 12 teams and UCD won the title. Third placed Sporting Fingal also won the 2009 FAI Cup Final, qualified for the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League and were promoted to the Premier Division after winning a promotion/relegation play off.

League of Ireland First Division
Season2009
ChampionsUCD
PromotedSporting Fingal
UEFA Europa LeagueSporting Fingal
Top goalscorerConan Byrne: 21
(Sporting Fingal) [1]
2008
2010
Locations of Dublin First Division teams

Clubs

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Team Base Manager Stadium
Athlone Town Athlone   Brendan Place Athlone Town Stadium
Finn Harps Ballybofey   James Gallagher Finn Park
Kildare County Newbridge   Joe Somerville Station Road
Limerick Limerick   Pat Scully Jackman Park
Longford Town Longford   Gareth Cronin Flancare Park
Mervue United Galway   Johnny Glynn Terryland Park
Monaghan United Monaghan   Mick Cooke Century Homes Park
Shelbourne Drumcondra   Dermot Keely Tolka Park
Sporting Fingal Fingal   Liam Buckley Morton Stadium
UCD Belfield   Martin Russell UCD Bowl
Waterford United Waterford   Stephen Henderson Waterford RSC
Wexford Youths Crossabeg   Mick Wallace Ferrycarraig Park

Overview

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This season saw the division expanded from 10 to 12 clubs. This was because the 2009 Premier Division was reduced to 10 clubs. The regular season began on 6 March and concluded on 7 November. Each team played the other teams three times, totaling 33 games. UCD finished as champions and were automatically promoted to the Premier Division. There was no promotion/relegation play-off between the First Division and the A Championship this season. This was only because Kildare County, who finished bottom of the table, withdrew from the League of Ireland before the play-offs could be played.[2][3]

Final table

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 UCD (C) 33 23 5 5 62 22 +40 74 Promoted to Premier Division
2 Shelbourne 33 22 7 4 66 31 +35 73 Lost promotion/relegation play off
3 Sporting Fingal[a] (P) 33 21 6 6 68 28 +40 69 UEFA Europa League/Premier Division
4 Waterford United 33 20 6 7 52 20 +32 66
5 Monaghan United 33 16 7 10 58 48 +10 55
6 Wexford Youths 33 15 5 13 27 31 −4 50
7 Limerick F.C.[b] 33 12 8 13 50 43 +7 44
8 Finn Harps 33 8 9 16 35 51 −16 33
9 Longford Town 33 8 4 21 46 62 −16 28
10 Athlone Town 33 6 9 18 32 63 −31 27
11 Mervue United 33 6 5 22 28 64 −36 23
12 Kildare County[c] 33 4 3 26 25 85 −60 15 Withdrew from the league
Source: [2]
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted
Notes:
  1. ^ Sporting Fingal qualified for the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League after winning the 2009 FAI Cup Final and were promoted to the Premier Division after winning the promotion/relegation play off.
  2. ^ Limerick 37 F.C. changed their name to Limerick F.C.
  3. ^ Kildare County withdrew from league at end of season and did participate in promotion/relegation play off.

Results

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Matches 1 to 22

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Home \ Away ATH FHA KIL LIM LON MER MON SHE SFI UCD WAT WEX
Athlone Town 2–2 3–1 0–2 2–5 2–2 2–3 2–2 1–2 0–1 1–2 0–1
Finn Harps 1–1 2–1 1–2 1–0 2–0 1–2 1–1 3–2 1–2 1–3 0–2
Kildare County 0–1 1–1 0–0 2–3 0–3 0–2 0–3 0–8 0–1 0–2 0–3
Limerick 0–0 1–1 3–0 1–4 4–1 0–0 0–1 1–4 0–0 0–2 2–0
Longford Town 0–1 0–0 4–0 2–3 3–0 3–3 0–2 1–3 0–3 1–3 0–1
Mervue United 0–1 1–1 1–4 1–0 3–2 1–5 0–1 1–1 1–2 0–2 0–0
Monaghan United 0–0 1–0 5–1 1–0 2–0 1–2 0–1 0–3 2–3 0–0 0–0
Shelbourne 2–0 2–1 2–0 1–0 2–2 7–0 2–1 1–0 1–3 1–0 2–1
Sporting Fingal 2–0 1–0 1–0 1–1 3–0 2–0 4–0 1–0 0–1 1–4 2–0
UCD 1–1 1–1 4–0 2–1 3–1 1–0 3–0 0–1 0–1 0–0 0–1
Waterford United 2–1 4–0 2–0 2–1 1–0 2–0 6–0 0–1 1–1 0–1 1–2
Wexford Youths 1–0 2–1 0–3 0–2 2–1 1–0 0–2 1–2 0–1 0–1 0–1
Source: loi.ie
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 23 to 33

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Home \ Away ATH FHA KIL LIM LON MER MON SHE SFI UCD WAT WEX
Athlone Town 0–6 2–2 1–2 0–5 1–2 2–0
Finn Harps 1–0 0–2 1–3 0–5 1–1
Kildare County 0–2 0–1 1–5 2–3 1–2
Limerick 6–1 3–0 2–3 2–1 3–3 2–1
Longford Town 3–0 1–2 1–2 1–4 0–4
Mervue United 3–1 0–1 0–1 2–4 1–4 1–2
Monaghan United 6–1 4–2 0–3 2–2 3–0
Shelbourne 0–0 3–3 4–5 2–2 1–2
Sporting Fingal 2–3 4–1 2–1 2–2 1–0 0–1
UCD 5–0 2–1 2–1 3–0 2–3 2–0
Waterford United 2–0 1–0 1–0 0–2 0–1 0–0
Wexford Youths 1–0 2–0 1–1 0–0 0–0
Source: loi.ie
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Promotion/relegation play-offs

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The second and third placed First Division teams, Shelbourne and Sporting Fingal played off to decide who would play the winner of the Premier Division play-off. The winner of this play off would play in the 2010 Premier Division.

First Division
10 November 2009 Shelbourne 1 – 2 Sporting Fingal Tolka Park
19:45 GMT McAllister   72' (pen.)
Flood   73'
Report Zayed   39'
Williams   41'
Attendance: 1,632
Referee: T. Connolly
First Division v Premier Division
13 November 2009 Sporting Fingal 2 – 0 Bray Wanderers Morton Stadium
19:45 GMT Paisley   51'
Byrne   67'
Report Attendance: 740
Referee: D. Tomney
16 November 2009 Bray Wanderers 2 – 2 Sporting Fingal Carlisle Grounds
19:45 GMT Flood   83'
O'Connor   90+1'
Report Zayed   59'
Bayly   90+2'
Referee: D. Hanney

Sporting Fingal won 4–2 on aggregate and were promoted to the Premier Division.

Top scorers

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Scorer Team Goals
  Conan Byrne Sporting Fingal[1] 21
  Karl Bermingham Monaghan United 17
  Graham Cummins Waterford United 17
  David McAllister Shelbourne 16
  Ciarán Kilduff UCD 14
  Stephen O'Flynn Limerick F.C. 14

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Ireland - List of Topscorers". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Ireland 2009". RSSSF. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  3. ^ "What Happens (To) Teams That Enter The League Of Ireland First Division?". www.balls.ie. 20 February 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2016.