A Brief History of Shamrock Rovers Like 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

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

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 RingsendIrishtown-Sandymount. The title came to Milltown again in 1924/25 when they also won the FAI Cup having beaten rivals Shelbourne

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'.

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

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

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.

The 80s was a time of huge success for 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.

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

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

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'.

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.

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.

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.