2020 League of Ireland Premier Division

The 2020 League of Ireland Premier Division, known as the SSE Airtricity League for sponsorship reasons, was the 36th season of the League of Ireland Premier Division.

League of Ireland Premier Division

Season	2020
Dates	14 February 2020 – 9 November 2020
Champions	Shamrock Rovers (18th title)
Relegated	Cork City, Shelbourne
Champions League	Shamrock Rovers
Europa Conference League	Bohemians Dundalk Sligo Rovers
Matches played	90
Goals scored	190 (2.11 per match)
Top goalscorer	Patrick Hoban (10 goals)
Biggest home win	Shamrock Rovers 6–0 Cork City (21 February 2020)
Biggest away win	Dundalk F.C 0-4 Shamrock Rovers (27 September 2020)
Highest scoring	Shamrock Rovers 6–1 Waterford (21 September 2020)
Longest winning run	Shamrock Rovers (7 games)
Longest unbeaten run	Shamrock Rovers (7 games)
Longest winless run	Finn Harps (7 games)
Longest losing run	Finn Harps (5 games)
Highest attendance	7,522^[1]
Total attendance	65,700^[note 1]
Average attendance	2,986^[2]
← 2019 2021 → All statistics correct as of 10 November 2020.

The league began on 14 February 2020 and concluded on 9 November 2020. The fixtures were announced on 20 December 2019.^[3] The season was halted in mid-March because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland following the directive of the Irish government and the Football Association of Ireland.^[4][5] The FAI subsequently announced a contingency plan with a view to completing the domestic season at a later date with a reduced number of games.^[6] It resumed on 31 July.^[7] On 24 October, Finn Harps won 2–0 at Bohemians which meant Shamrock Rovers won the league and Cork City were relegated.^[8][9]

Overview

The Premier Division consists of 10 teams. Ordinarily each team plays each other four times for a total of 36 matches in the season. Following a meeting of the Football Association of Ireland regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided that the season would be played on an 18-match basis with teams playing each other twice: once at home and once away.^[7]

Shelbourne, the 2019 First Division champions, were promoted to the league for the first time since 2013, replacing fellow Dublin side UCD, who were relegated to the League of Ireland First Division after finishing bottom of the league in 2019.^[10]

Teams

Stadia and locations

 

 

Cork City

 

Derry City

 

Dublin

 

Dundalk

 

Finn Harps

 

Sligo Rovers

 

Waterford

 

Dublin teams
Bohemians
Shamrock Rovers
St Patrick's Athletic
Shelbourne

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Locations of Premier Division teams

 

 

Bohemians

 

St Patrick's Athletic

 

Shamrock Rovers

 

Shelbourne

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Locations of Dublin Premier Division teams

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Bohemians	Dublin (Phibsborough)	Dalymount Park	3,640
Cork City	Cork	Turners Cross	7,845
Derry City	Derry	Brandywell Stadium	3,700
Dundalk	Dundalk	Oriel Park	4,500
Finn Harps	Ballybofey	Finn Park	6,000
St Patrick's Athletic	Dublin (Inchicore)	Richmond Park	5,340
Shamrock Rovers	Dublin (Tallaght)	Tallaght Stadium	8,000
Shelbourne	Dublin (Drumcondra)	Tolka Park	3,700
Sligo Rovers	Sligo	The Showgrounds	5,500
Waterford	Waterford	Regional Sports Centre	5,500

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Bohemians	Keith Long	Keith Buckley	O'Neills	Des Kelly Interiors
Cork City	Colin Healy	Gearoid Morrissey	Adidas	University College Cork
Derry City	Declan Devine	Conor McCormack	Adidas	Diamond Corrugated
Dundalk	Filippo Giovagnoli	Brian Gartland	Umbro	Fyffes
Finn Harps	Ollie Horgan	Gareth Harkin	Joma	KN Group
St Patrick's Athletic	Stephen O'Donnell	Ian Bermingham	Umbro	MIG Insurance Brokers
Shamrock Rovers	Stephen Bradley	Ronan Finn	Umbro	JD Sports
Shelbourne	Ian Morris	Lorcan Fitzgerald	Umbro	FLYEfit
Sligo Rovers	Liam Buckley	Kyle Callan-McFadden	Joma	Avantcard
Waterford	Fran Rockett	Brian Murphy	Umbro	24/7 Cardiac Care

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Waterford	Alan Reynolds	Resigned	16 June 2020^[11]	6th	John Sheridan^[12]	8 July 2020
Dundalk	Vinny Perth	Sacked	20 August 2020^[13]	3rd	Filippo Giovagnoli^[14]	25 August 2020
Waterford	John Sheridan	Moved to Wigan Athletic	11 September 2020^[15]	4th	Fran Rockett^[16]	24 September 2020
Cork City	Neale Fenn	Resigned	8 October 2020^[17]	10th	Colin Healy^[a]^[18]	9 October 2020

1. Healy was initially appointed as caretaker manager until the end of the season. He was made permanent manager on 24 December 2020.

League table

Standings

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Shamrock Rovers (C)	18	15	3	0	44	7	+37	48	Qualification to Champions League first qualifying round
2	Bohemians	18	12	1	5	23	12	+11	37	Qualification to Europa Conference League first qualifying round^[a]
3	Dundalk	18	7	5	6	25	23	+2	26
4	Sligo Rovers	18	8	1	9	19	23	−4	25
5	Waterford	18	7	3	8	17	22	−5	24
6	St Patrick's Athletic	18	5	6	7	14	17	−3	21
7	Derry City	18	5	5	8	18	18	0	20
8	Finn Harps	18	5	5	8	15	24	−9	20
9	Shelbourne (R)	18	5	4	9	13	22	−9	19	Qualification to Relegation play-offs
10	Cork City (R)	18	2	5	11	10	30	−20	11	Relegation to League of Ireland First Division

Source: SSE Airtricity League, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored.^[19]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Since the winners of the 2020 FAI Cup (Dundalk) qualified for European competition based on their league position, the final spot awarded to the Cup winner passed to the next best-placed team i.e fourth-placed team.

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included in the round at which they were originally scheduled but added to the full round they were played immediately afterward.

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Bohemians	6	4	3	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Cork City	7	10	10	9	9	10	10	9	10	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
Derry City	8	8	8	5	7	7	7	8	5	7	6	6	6	7	6	7	7	7
Dundalk	1	2	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	4	3	3	4	6	3	3	3	3
Finn Harps	2	3	4	6	8	8	9	10	9	10	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	8
Shamrock Rovers	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Shelbourne	4	6	6	4	5	6	6	6	7	6	7	8	8	8	8	8	8	9
Sligo Rovers	9	9	9	10	10	9	8	7	4	3	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	4
St Patrick's Athletic	10	5	5	7	4	5	4	4	6	8	8	7	7	4	7	7	6	6
Waterford	5	7	7	8	6	4	5	5	8	5	4	4	3	3	4	4	4	5

Source: Extratime.com
  = Leader and UEFA Champions League first qualifying round;   = UEFA Conference League first qualifying round;   = Qualification to the Relegation play-offs;   = Relegation to the League of Ireland First Division

Results

Teams will play each other twice (once at home, once away).

Home \ Away	BOH	COR	DER	DUN	FHA	STP	SHM	SHE	SLI	WAT
Bohemians	—	3–0	2–1	2–1	0–2	2–0	0–1	2–0	2–0	0–2
Cork City	0–1	—	1–1	0–2	1–0	1–2	0–3	0–1	3–0	0–0
Derry City	2–0	3–1	—	1–2	1–1	0–0	1–2	2–0	0–2	2–0
Dundalk	0–0	3–0	1–0	—	0–0	1–1	0–4	3–2	0–2	2–2
Finn Harps	0–1	1–1	0–0	0–4	—	3–2	0–2	0–1	1–0	1–0
St Patrick's Athletic	1–2	1–0	0–2	1–1	2–0	—	0–0	2–0	0–0	0–1
Shamrock Rovers	1–0	6–0	2–0	3–2	3–1	0–0	—	0–0	4–0	6–1
Shelbourne	1–3	1–1	1–1	1–2	1–1	1–0	0–2	—	1–0	0–1
Sligo Rovers	0–1	2–1	1–0	3–1	3–1	0–2	2–3	2–1	—	2–1
Waterford	0–2	0–0	2–1	1–0	2–3	3–0	0–2	0–1	1–0	—

Source: SSE Airtricity League, Extratime.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Patrick Hoban	Dundalk	10
2	Jack Byrne	Shamrock Rovers	9
3	Graham Burke	Shamrock Rovers	8
	Andre Wright	Bohemians
4	Daniel Grant	Bohemians	7
	Aaron Greene	Shamrock Rovers
5	Ronan Coughlan	Sligo Rovers	6

Last updated: 6 November 2020.
Source: Extratime.com

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Goals
Graham Burke	Shamrock Rovers	Cork City	6–0	21 February 2020	5
Daniel Grant	Bohemians	Shelbourne	1–3	3 October 2020	3

Play-offs

First Division play-off Semi-finals

Bray Wanderers v Galway United

31 October 2020	Bray Wanderers	0–1	Galway United	Carlisle Grounds
15:00			Wilson Waweru   86'	Attendance: 0 (Behind closed doors)

UCD v Longford Town

31 October 2020	UCD	2–3 (a.e.t.)	Longford Town	UCD Bowl
15:00	Colm Whelan   18' Yousef Mahdy   110'		Joe Gorman   90' Joe Gorman   113' Dean Byrne   120'	Attendance: 0 (Behind closed doors)

First Division play-off Final

Galway United v Longford Town

6 November 2020	Galway United	1–2	Longford Town	UCD Bowl
19:45	Vinny Faherty   88'	Report	Karl Chambers   43' Aodh Dervin   82'	Attendance: 0 (Behind closed doors) Referee: Mark Moynihan

Promotion/relegation play-off

Shelbourne v Longford Town

15 November 2020	Shelbourne	0–1	Longford Town	Richmond Park
14:30		Report	Rob Manley   46'	Attendance: 0 Referee: Neil Doyle

Source:^[20]

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Player of the Month		References
	Player	Club
February	Jack Byrne	Shamrock Rovers
August	Daniel Grant	Bohemians
September	Jack Byrne	Shamrock Rovers
October	Sean Murray	Dundalk
November	David McMillan	Dundalk

Annual awards

Award	Winner	Club
PFAI Player of the Year	Jack Byrne	Shamrock Rovers
PFAI Young Player of the Year	Daniel Grant	Bohemians
PFAI Premier Division Manager of the Year	Stephen Bradley	Shamrock Rovers

PFAI Team of the Year
Goalkeeper	Alan Mannus (Shamrock Rovers)
Defenders	Andy Lyons (Bohemians)			Roberto Lopes (Shamrock Rovers)			Lee Grace (Shamrock Rovers)			Tyreke Wilson (Waterford)
Midfielders	Keith Buckley (Bohemians)			Aaron McEneff (Shamrock Rovers)				Jack Byrne (Shamrock Rovers)
Forwards	Daniel Grant (Bohemians)			Andre Wright (Bohemians)				Michael Duffy (Dundalk)

See also

• 2020 League of Ireland First Division
• 2020 FAI Cup
• 2020 League of Ireland Cup
• 2020 Bohemian F.C. season
• 2020 Dundalk F.C. season
• 2020 Shelbourne F.C. season
• 2020 St Patrick's Athletic F.C. season

Notes

1. Total attendance and average attendance figures only account for the first four weeks of the season after which no spectators were allowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic

References

1. "League Report: Shamrock Rovers 3 - 2 Dundalk". extra time. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
2. "2020 SSE AIRTRICITY LEAGUE OF IRELAND PREMIER DIVISION". extra time. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
3. "2020 Premier Division season begins with Dublin derby". RTÉ Sport. 20 December 2019.
4. "FAI postpones all football activity with immediate effect". Football Association of Ireland. 12 March 2020. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
5. Quinn, Gavin (12 March 2020). "Which Irish sports events have been cancelled due to coronavirus? FAI, GAA and IRFU suspend all activity until March 29". Irish Daily Mirror. Dublin: Reach plc.
6. . League of Ireland. 20 March 2020. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
7. "Airtricity League confirm that season will restart on July 31st". The Irish Times. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
8. Buttner, Paul (25 October 2020). "Shamrock Rovers are league champions as Harps down Bohs". RTÉ Sport.
9. Donnelly, Dave (24 October 2020). "Shamrock Rovers crowned champions and Cork City relegated after Finn Harps win over Bohs". The42. TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
10. "Shelbourne promoted to Premier Division". RTÉ Sport. 12 September 2019.
11. "Manager Alan Reynolds departs Waterford FC". RTÉ Sport. 16 June 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
12. "John Sheridan named as new Waterford FC boss". RTÉ Sport. 8 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
13. Malone, Emmet (20 August 2020). "Vinny Perth sacked by Dundalk following Champions League exit". The Irish Times. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
14. "'A lot of people are sceptical but I am not afraid' – Dundalk confirm arrival of little-known Italian Giovagnoli". The42. TheJournal.ie. 25 August 2020. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
15. O'Hehir, Paul (11 September 2020). "John Sheridan leaves Waterford for Wigan insisting he didn't disrespect League of Ireland". Irish Daily Mirror. Dublin: Reach plc. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
16. Kelly, Niall (24 September 2020). "Waterford appoint Rockett to take over from John Sheridan as first-team manager". The42. TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
17. McDonnell, Daniel (8 October 2020). "Neale Fenn 'devastated' after Cork City departure as Preston owner eyes up takeover deal". Irish Independent. Dublin: Independent News & Media. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
18. "Cork City appoint Colin Healy as head coach". The Irish Times. 24 December 2020. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
19. "Premier Division 2020". Soccerway. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
20. "2020 Season SSE Airtricity League Fixtures" (PDF). SSE Airtricity League. 18 October 2020. Retrieved 29 October 2020.

External links

• Official website
• Full Results and Fixtures