League of Ireland 2015 quick preview The Northern Clubs

   There are 12 Premier clubs fighting for the glory of the Championship of the League of Ireland. Here is a quick look at the 12 clubs broken into my 3 geographical areas. The Dublin Area, the Northern clubs and the Southern Clubs.  I am listing them as where I think they will place at the end of year.

The Northern Clubs			Capacity	Avg attendance (2014)
1	Dundalk F.C	Oriel Park	4,500	2,534
2	Sligo Rovers FC	Showgrounds	5,500	2,087
3	Derry F.C.	Brandywell	7,700	1,298
4	Drogheda United	United Park	2,000	1,023

        

                League of Ireland 2015 –a quick view of the Northern Clubs

                Well we have the defending Champions of 2014 Dundalk. This was Dundalk’s 10^th Championship. They are one of only 4 clubs that can put a gold star -to represent 10 Championship’s after their name.  The other 3 clubs reside in the Dublin area. The Lillywhites will again be led by the 23 year old Richie Towell. He was the catalyst in the middle...pictured below. Dundalk has a young team and management spent the biggest budget of any club. Since they will be playing internationally this summer and collecting participation money (about 120,000) I again see Dundalk opening their purse strings and challenging for another title.

Richie Towell will be back in 2015.

Sligo Rovers won the league as recently as 2012. Sligo has also won the FAI Cup 2010, 2011 and 2013. Sligo has had the added bonus of the international prize money to support the club the last 4 years. This year will be different. Sligo missed out on the very desirable international play, so will not have the money from that participation. Sligo Rovers are spending big on their continued development of the Showgrounds. They are owner by their supporters and incorporate their entire community. They have built their stadium one stand at a time. Their stadium is installing a state of the art full weather pitch, and all grass pitch and 2 5 vs 5 playing surfaces within the Showgrounds facility. The total cost is close to 500,000 Euro's.

Derry City is the only club from Northern Ireland. They play in Brandywell Stadium and which was recently granted 5M in funding from the government. (Northern Ireland).  The money will revamp the entire stadium which will be something every supporter will look forward to. Derry has been in 2 of the last 3 FAI Cups. Winning one of them. The candy stripers will be looking for success and their new stadium.

Drogheda United does not have a long history of success however their success is most recent. In the 2007 season the Drog’s won the trifecta….winning the League of Ireland, the FAI Cup and the Setanta Cup. These Northern Clubs add great competition to the League.