The Southern Clubs League of Ireland 2015 preview

     The Southern 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 Southern Clubs			Capacity	Avg Attendance 2014
1	Cork City FC	Turners Cross	7,485	3,777
2	Limerick FC	Markets Field	3,000	865
3	Galway United	Deacy Park	5,000	970
4	Longford Town	City Calling Stadium	6,850	693

           

Cork City FC has had fantastic attendance last year with an average of 3,777. They were also in the title hunt until the last game of the season. Many followers claim that Turners Cross is the “best” venue to take in a League of Ireland game.  They have a nice clean stadium that is the only all seater stadium in the League. The stadium has about 7,458 capacity. They also play on a beautiful grass pitch. Cory City is the second largest city located with in the Republic of Ireland. This year City’s faithful will enjoy the bonus money from the international competition (Europa tournament) this summer and welcome their opponent eagerly. I believe Cork will sign a healthy group of players they will need for the Europe League games and the season of 2015.

Limerick FC has finally returned to their spiritual home of Markets Field. Thomond Park was beautiful rugby stadium but average attendance of fewer than 1,000 . This made the Thomond Park (26,600) seem like every game it was empty. So for all of those who say “build it they will come”----your wrong. Limerick FC fans and players alike will enjoy playing in their true home field. Market’s field which has a capacity of 3,000 will be so much cozier to watch a game for Limerick’s faithful. Limerick FC will be looking forward to the big Munster derby against Cork City this year.

Galway United is finally back in the Premier League. Galway is one of the big 4 urban areas in the Republic of Ireland. It is important for the league to constantly have a presence in this city. Sligo has been flying the banner for county Connaught by itself. The entire county could the exposure from another club to represent Connaught. Galway United are owned by their supporters and have had a rough time organizing and agreeing on a single club. Galway had a great run at the end of the 2014 season and placed 3rd. They entered into a home/away playoff against perennial power Shelbourne. They shut them out 2-0 at home. Then traveled to Dublin and won again 2-1. This qualified them for a playoff against UCD. They again won both games 5-1 aggregate. This was a tremendous accomplishment for the club and supporters alike.                                                                                  Galway United will play at Eamonn Deacy Park  that usually has one of the best pitched in the entire League of Ireland. Galway last played in the Premier Division in

2011…so they have been absent for the last 3 years. Look for Galway to get their feet wet this first year back and play with a very young team. Look for First Division player of the year nominee Ryan Connolly to conduct the attack in the middle. Ryan is 5’10’’ will look to connect to top American FW Jack Keegan.

 Longford Town yes ..I know Longford is more North than all the Dublin Clubs. I just wanted to break my groups up into 4 team groups. I wanted to place Bray Wanders with the Dublin Clubs since of their close proximity…….SORRY!!!! Longford Town FC does have 2 FAI Cup. They won back to back titles in 2003 and 04. They did win the League of Ireland First Division and that was last year. Longford Town FC attendance and interest is the least in the league. Lets see if they can come close to the league average in attendance. That would be nice.