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Drogheda United F.c. Information

Drogheda United Football Club (Irish: Cumann Peile Dhroichead Átha Aontaithe) is a professional Irish football club currently playing in the first division of the League of Ireland. The club hails from Drogheda, Ireland and, since 1979, play their home matches at Hunky Dorys Park.

The current club is the amalgamation of two former Drogheda area clubs, Drogheda United founded in 1919 and Drogheda F.C. founded in 1962. The clubs merged their operations to form the current club in 1975 and have achieved huge success since 2005 by winning two Setanta Sports Cups and an FAI Cup. The highlight came, though when they claimed their first ever League of Ireland title on 19 October 2007, beating Cork City at home 2-1.

Contents

History

Founded in 1919 the original Drogheda United were a non-league club for all of their early years of existence but in 1963 another Drogheda Club - Drogheda F.C. (founded in 1962) were elected to the League of Ireland when the league was expanded to include twelve teams rather than ten. In their first season there they finished tenth and also in each of the next three seasons finished in the bottom three. In the 1967-68 season they achieved a respectable fifth place finish and the following season finished in sixth place. When the league expanded to include fourteen teams the club dropped down the table again finishing in the bottom five in each of the next six seasons and also recording their heaviest league defeat 8-1 to Cork Hibernians in the 1970-71 season. They did, however, get to FAI Cup Final that season where they were beaten 3-0 by Limerick.

In 1975 Drogheda F.C. amalgamated with Drogheda United to form Drogheda United F.C. and the 1975-76 season saw an improvement in fortunes on the field as they finished sixth in the league and they also reached the FAI Cup Final for the second time, this time losing 1-0 to Bohemians. For the next three seasons, quite the opposite at what had happened before, they finished in third place. During these seasons Drogheda United also achieved two club records - their biggest league victory (7-1 v Finn Harps) and Cathal Muckian scoring 21 league goals in a season. The club then endured another tough spell in the league finishing in the bottom half for the next five seasons bar the 1982-83 season when they managed to achieve their highest ever league placing of second place finishing sixteen points behind Athlone Town. They did win their first ever trophy during these seasons also, the League of Ireland Cup in the 1983-84 season.

The 1984-85 season saw the introduction of the League of Ireland First Division to begin the following season with Drogheda United among the four clubs who were relegated from the Premier Division but in this season also Drogheda United entered European Competition for the first time where they were destroyed against Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA Cup First Round 14-0 on aggregate. They remained in the First Division until the 1988-89 season when they went up as First Division Champions. Their joy was short-lived, however, as the following season they were relegated although this time they achieved promotion at the first time of asking. In the next two seasons Drogheda battled bravely against relegation surviving by one point and on goal difference in the respective seasons. However, they were relegated for the third time in the 1993-94 season.

Drogheda United were very much becoming a yo-yo club, swapping divisions every season between the 1993-94 and 2000-01 seasons when in 2000-01 they finished a disappointing ninth in the ten-team First Division. They were relegated to the first division in 2010 after finishing bottom of the table.

Professional era

The 2002/03 season they did achieve promotion back to the Premier Division and became professional. The change to full-time has seen the club's fortunes drastically improve. They won their first FAI Cup in 2005 and won back-to-back Setanta Cups in 2006 and 2007. They also qualified for the UEFA Cup for the 2006-2007 season thanks to their 2005 FAI Cup success. They fared better this time than in their first foray into Europe as they defeated HJK Helsinki 4-2 on aggregate in the First Qualifying Round and were just eliminated on penalties in the next round against I.K. Start of Norway. They were also in the UEFA Cup Qualifying stages for the 2007-2008 campaign, losing to Helsingborgs IF in the second round. United made up of players mainly from Dublin finally won the League Of Ireland for the first time in 2007, meaning they would finally be playing in the Champions League Qualifiers for the first time in their history in the 2008-09 season. They succeeded in their first qualifier against FC Levadia Tallinn, beating them 3-1 on aggregate. They played the Second Qualifying Round against Dynamo Kiev which, they ended up losing 4-3 on aggregate. In the first late goal for Kiev secured a 2-1 victory at Dalymount Park. It didn't seem like Drogheda would do well. A goal after 13 minutes seemed to have finished the tie, but remarkably, on 41 minutes, they were awarded a penalty. Shane Robinson stepped up and slotted home the spot-kick. Drogheda then worked tirelessly trying to get the second goal, but they gave away a penalty on 72 minutes, which was converted. 2-1 down, it seemed the tie was over now. Amazingly however, Graham Gartland scored an 88th minute goal to make it 2-2. Adam Hughes got a further chance when he had an open goal, but miskicked the ball and it flew over the bar. Then, Shane Robinson hit a shot from a tight angle which hit the post. Despite Drogheda's late rally, they were knocked out by Dynamo Kiev. In October 2008 Drogheda went into examinership, like Cork City, and in November 2008 they were deduced 10 points. After successfully raising money through various fund raisers arranged by the supporters, the club escaped extinction in January 2009 when a judge ruled in Drogheda's favour to the delight of the teary eyed Chairman Vincent Hoey.

The 2009 season proved to be difficult for Drogheda. Due to bankruptcy, only Paul Skinner and Shane Barrett stayed at the club. Former Cork City boss Alan Mathews took over, after Doolin left the club. Mathews had to cobble together a side of free agents. Drogheda were in the bottom half of the table for the whole season. On 10th November 2009 they hosted Bray Wanderers in a relegation play-off. Goals from James Chambers and Brian King secured a 2-0 win and a Premier Division place for 2010.

In 2010, they re-signed Joe Kendrick. They also signed defenders Corie Treacy, Jamie Harris and Damien Brennan. Despite the new players Drogheda started terribly and after a 6-0 loss at the hands of Sligo on May 15th Alan Mathews quit his managerial post. Youth teach coach and Drogheda native Darius Kierans took over as caretaker manager and beat St. Patricks Athletic in his first home game. The club appointed Kierans as permanent manager even though he had yet to complete his Europa A license which is an FAI requirement for league managers. After much objection from the FAI[1] Darius became Director of Football and the club appointed Paul Lumsden as Interim Manager. Lumsden took the team for only one game [2] before resigning [3]. Brian Donnelly [4]was then appointed as the second Interim Manager of the season but he too resigned in September. Darius Kierans took the team one more time [5] in a 4-0 home defeat to Sporting Fingal before stepping away from first team affairs on 27th Sep. when the club announced the imminent arrival as manager of another former player – Bobby Browne[6].

The Claret & Blue Club

In response to the economic difficulties facing the country, a group of supporters established The Claret & Blue Club in June 2009 with the aim of providing a steady income stream to Drogheda United FC. Supporters who join the Claret & Blue Club donate at least €5 per week to the club, and in return, they receive a membership card entitling them to discounts of up to 10% in a range of local businesses, including restaurants, tile shops, shoe shops and many more. Each member is also entered in a monthly prize draw, with a top prize every month of a sun holiday courtesy of Panorama Holidays. Other prizes include hotel vouchers, tickets to Irish World Cup qualifier games, betting vouchers etc. Publicity on the Derek Mooney Show on RTE Radio one and full-page ads in the Drogheda Independent and Drogheda People resulted in a surge of membership, and after only four weeks of existence, the Claret & Blue Club is in a position to bring in over €35,000 to the club annually, with membership figures rising daily. It is hoped that the Claret & Blue Club will take full ownership of the club in 2010 and run the club similar to the way Shamrock Rovers is run by the 400 Club.

Emblem

The crest of Drogheda United is an adaptation of the crest of Drogheda town's coat of arms, which feature the heraldic symbols of a star and crescent over a shield depicting St. Lawrence's Gate, three lions and a ship. The three lions passant represent England - as Drogheda lay within the Pale and was a garrison town - and the ship represents the town's port.

While Drogheda United share the same symbols and colours as Trabzonspor, in Turkey - both recently declared to be brother teams.

Overall European record

Record by competition

UEFA Champions League:

Appearances Played Won Drawn Lost For Against
1 4 2 1 1 6 5

UEFA Cup:

Appearances Played Won Drawn Lost For Against
3 10 3 3 4 10 22

Overall:

Appearances Played Won Drawn Lost For Against
4 14 5 4 5 16 27

Past opponents

Season Competition Country Team Score
1983/84 UEFA Cup Round 1 Tottenham Hotspur F.C. 0-14 agg.
2006/07 UEFA Cup Qual. Round 1 HJK Helsinki 4-2 agg.
2006/07 UEFA Cup Qual. Round 2 I.K. Start 1-1 agg. 10-11 (pen.)
2007/08 UEFA Cup Qual. Round 1 A.C. Libertas 4-1 agg.
2007/08 UEFA Cup Qual. Round 2 Helsingborgs 1-4 agg.
2008/09 UEFA Champions League Qual. Round 1 FC Levadia Tallinn 3-1 agg.
2008/09 UEFA Champions League Qual. Round 2 FC Dynamo Kyiv 3-4 agg.

Current squad

As of July 31, 2010

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

No. Position Player
1 GK Paul Skinner
2 DF Corie Tracy
4 DF Yael Haro
5 DF Alan McNally
6 MF Eric McGill
7 MF Brendan McGill
8 MF Kevin Ross
9 FW William Woods
10 MF Paul Crowley
11 FW John Flood
12 DF Eoghan Osborne
15 DF Jamie Harris
No. Position Player
16 MF Mick Daly
17 MF Peter McMahon
18 FW Glen Fitzpatrick
19 MF Ryan Brennan
20 DF Colm Smyth
23 GK Robert Duggan
25 MF Paul Matondo
MF Darren Meenan
MF Ronan McEnteggart
DF Derek Kierans
FW Ger Rowe
DF Stephen Murphy
DF Ciarán Hoey

Notable former players

Notable former managers

Honours

Darius Kierns

Records

Supporters and rivalries

Drogs is a nickname for supporters of the club. When the name Drogs started to appear in two newspapers in the late 1990s, The Sun and the Drogheda Leader, the club wrote to the Drogheda Leader Newspaper demanding that the name not be used adding that it was not used in the stadium by the fans. The newspaper argued that it had not invented the name and that the fans in the shed side of the stadium often sing a song called Super Drogs. The club considered the name was degrading and was purely a Drogheda Leader nickname not used by the supporters. In recent years the club officially embraced the nickname.

The most vocal supporters stand on "the shed side" of Hunky Dorys Park. Many Drogs attend every home match while a smaller group travel around the country to support the team at away matches. They sing football/Drogheda United chants, wear club colours (claret and blue), wave banners and flags and generally try to help lift the team and demonstrate fervent support. One section of their supporters are known as 'F45U' (Famous 45 Ultras.)

Drogheda United Supporters Club (DUSC) was formed more than two years ago. Its main aim is to promote Drogheda United F.C. throughout the community. The supporters club works hand-in-hand with the football club in various ways including contributing to the match day programme, organising fund raising nights like quizzes and race nights and by organising buses to away matches.[7]

Claret & Blue Brotherhood

Drogheda United and Trabzonspor, the two brothers as the official club[8][9]. This is the basis of brotherhood, Drogheda United's roots, the Ottoman Empire the effect is quite large. Irish and Turkish fans closer to each in a other subject. two teams carries the same colors. The process of "fans brotherhood" continued for a long time. But the official was not. Brotherhood formalized, was carried in 2010.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/manager-chaos-may-see-drogs-licence-revoked-2232500.html
  2. ^ http://www.breakingnews.ie/sport/valuable-three-points-for-drogheda-463996.html
  3. ^ http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/drogheda-chaos-continues-2246203.html
  4. ^ http://www.drogheda-independent.ie/premium/sport/soccer/donnelly-named-as-drogheda-manager-2258199.html
  5. ^ http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2010/0924/drogheda_sportingfingal.html
  6. ^ http://www.droghedaunited.ie/news/2010/september/news_018.php
  7. ^ Supporters Club, Drogheda United Official Website, 2007. Retrieved on 2 August 2007.
  8. ^ DUFC Official Sister Club of Trabzonspor, Drogheda United Official Web Site
  9. ^ Bordo-Mavi kardeşlik doğuyor.., Ajansspor Turkish Sport News Web Site

External links

 ·  ·  League of Ireland · 2011 teams
Premier Division Bohemians · Bray Wanderers · Derry City · Dundalk · Galway United · St Patrick's Athletic · Shamrock Rovers · Sligo Rovers · Sporting Fingal · UCD
First Division Athlone Town · Cork City · Drogheda United · Finn Harps · Limerick · Longford Town · Mervue United · Monaghan United · Salthill Devon · Shelbourne · Waterford United · Wexford Youths

Categories: Drogheda | Republic of Ireland football clubs | Association football clubs established in 1919 | Sport in County Louth | League of Ireland Premier Division clubs

 

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