Eire. Ranked 30th. Dramatic battle between 3 teams for the title.
Second Division – 10 teams, 2 promoted. Three former top league teams were stronger than the rest, but two of them were not not up to the task of return among the best.
Cobh Ramblers were the pleasant surprise – they finished 2nd with 38 points and were promoted. A new name to play in the First Division.
Athlone Town won the championship with 39 points: 19 wins, 1 draw, 7 losses, 42-22. They prevailed over Cobh Ramblers, but the most important was the promotion back to top league.
First Division – 2 teams were hopeless outsiders, so no drama at the bottom, but the race for the title was dramatic. The formula of the 12-team league was every team playing 3 times against the others to the tune of 33 championship rounds.
Sligo Rovers ended last with 13 points.
Bray Wanderers was going down as well – 11th with 18 points.
Derry City had rather weak season – 8th with 31 points.
Bohemians, St. Patrick’s Athletic and Dundalk fought for the title and at the end 1 point was the decisive difference. Bohemians was disappointed – 3rd with 45 points.
St. Patrick’s Athletic managed to finish above Bohemians, thanks to 2 goals better goal-difference. But they also finished with 45 points and lost the title. Still, it was not all that bad – they clinched the Irish UEFA Cup spot.
Dundalk clinched the title with 46 points: 19 wins, 8 draws, 6 losses, 54-32.
It was not all for the champions – they reached the Cup final too, where Derry City opposed them. The final was controversial.
The Northern Ireland-based finalist gave the final distinct foreign flavour – Derry City had only 1 player from Eire, but had also players from France, England, Scotland and South Africa (Owen Da Gama above hailed from South Africa). In the bitter weather, they were seemingly the better team, but the referee… gave questionable penalty to Dundalk and put a blind eye to two Derry City penalty claims. Dundalk scored what was given and the end was 1-0 for them.
Dundalk got the Cup.
Derry City had reason to think they were wronged and most likely they were, but after a weak season they were still going to play a bit of European football in the Cup Winners Cup as losing finalists. They were also a good example of the vast changes in the European football in the 1980s – now even lowly leagues used foreign players.
Dundalk with a double, but both trophies were won in dramatic manner. Certainly not a domineering squad – rather sturdy fighters. The boys increased the club record to 7 titles and 8 Cups. They won the second double for Dundalk, after waiting a decade for such triumph (the first double Dundalk won in 1978-79).