2009 League of Ireland First Division

The 2009 League of Ireland First Division season was the 25th season of the League of Ireland First Division. The First Division was contested by 12 teams and UCD won the title. Third placed Sporting Fingal also won the 2009 FAI Cup Final, qualified for the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League and were promoted to the Premier Division after winning a promotion/relegation play off.

Athlone Town

Finn Harps

Kildare County

Limerick FC

Longford Town

Mervue United

Monaghan United

Dublin

Waterford United

Wexford Youths

Dublin teams Sporting Fingal
Shelbourne
UCD

Location of teams in 2009 League of Ireland First Division

Shelbourne

UCD

Sporting Fingal

Locations of Dublin First Division teams

League of Ireland First Division

Season	2009
Champions	UCD
Promoted	Sporting Fingal
UEFA Europa League	Sporting Fingal
Top goalscorer	Conan Byrne: 21 (Sporting Fingal) [1]
← 2008 2010 →

Clubs

Team	Base	Manager	Stadium
Athlone Town	Athlone	Brendan Place	Athlone Town Stadium
Finn Harps	Ballybofey	James Gallagher	Finn Park
Kildare County	Newbridge	Joe Somerville	Station Road
Limerick	Limerick	Pat Scully	Jackman Park
Longford Town	Longford	Gareth Cronin	Flancare Park
Mervue United	Galway	Johnny Glynn	Terryland Park
Monaghan United	Monaghan	Mick Cooke	Century Homes Park
Shelbourne	Drumcondra	Dermot Keely	Tolka Park
Sporting Fingal	Fingal	Liam Buckley	Morton Stadium
UCD	Belfield	Martin Russell	UCD Bowl
Waterford United	Waterford	Stephen Henderson	Waterford RSC
Wexford Youths	Crossabeg	Mick Wallace	Ferrycarraig Park

Overview

This season saw the division expanded from 10 to 12 clubs. This was because the 2009 Premier Division was reduced to 10 clubs. The regular season began on 6 March and concluded on 7 November. Each team played the other teams three times, totaling 33 games. UCD finished as champions and were automatically promoted to the Premier Division. There was no promotion/relegation play-off between the First Division and the A Championship this season. This was only because Kildare County, who finished bottom of the table, withdrew from the League of Ireland before the play-offs could be played.^[2][3]

Final table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	UCD (C)	33	23	5	5	63	21	+42	74	Promoted to Premier Division
2	Shelbourne	33	22	7	4	66	31	+35	73	Lost promotion/relegation play off
3	Sporting Fingal[a] (P)	33	21	6	6	68	28	+40	69	UEFA Europa League/Premier Division
4	Waterford United	33	20	6	7	51	21	+30	66
5	Monaghan United	33	16	7	10	58	48	+10	55
6	Wexford Youths	33	15	5	13	27	31	−4	50
7	Limerick F.C.[b]	33	12	8	13	48	43	+5	44
8	Finn Harps	33	8	9	16	35	51	−16	33
9	Longford Town	33	8	4	21	46	61	−15	28
10	Athlone Town	33	6	9	18	32	63	−31	27
11	Mervue United	33	6	5	22	28	64	−36	23
12	Kildare County[c]	33	4	3	26	25	85	−60	15	Withdrew from the league

Source: ^[2]
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted
Notes:

1. Sporting Fingal qualified for the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League after winning the 2009 FAI Cup Final and were promoted to the Premier Division after winning the promotion/relegation play off.
2. Limerick 37 F.C. changed their name to Limerick F.C.
3. Kildare County withdrew from league at end of season and did participate in promotion/relegation play off.

Results

Matches 1 to 22

Home \ Away	ATH	FHA	KIL	LIM	LON	MER	MON	SHE	SFI	UCD	WAT	WEX
Athlone Town		2–2	3–1	0–2	2–5	2–2	2–3	2–2	1–2	0–1	1–2	0–1
Finn Harps	1–1		2–1	1–2	1–0	2–0	1–2	1–1	3–2	1–2	1–3	0–2
Kildare County	0–1	1–1		0–0	2–3	0–3	0–2	0–3	0–8	0–1	0–2	0–3
Limerick	0–0	1–1	3–0		1–4	4–1	0–0	0–1	1–4	0–0	0–2	2–0
Longford Town	0–1	0–0	4–0	2–3		3–0	3–3	0–2	1–3	0–3	1–3	0–1
Mervue United	0–1	1–1	1–4	1–0	3–2		1–5	0–1	1–1	1–2	0–2	0–0
Monaghan United	0–0	1–0	5–1	1–0	2–0	1–2		0–1	0–3	2–3	0–0	0–0
Shelbourne	2–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	2–2	7–0	2–1		1–0	1–3	1–0	2–1
Sporting Fingal	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	3–0	2–0	4–0	1–0		0–1	1–4	2–0
UCD	1–1	1–1	4–0	2–1	3–1	1–0	3–0	0–1	0–1		0–0	0–1
Waterford United	2–1	4–0	2–0	2–1	1–0	2–0	6–0	0–1	1–1	0–1		1–2
Wexford Youths	1–0	2–1	0–3	0–2	2–1	1–0	0–2	1–2	0–1	0–1	0–1

Source: loi.ie
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 23 to 33

Home \ Away	ATH	FHA	KIL	LIM	LON	MER	MON	SHE	SFI	UCD	WAT	WEX
Athlone Town		0–6	2–2				1–2			0–5	1–2	2–0
Finn Harps					1–0		0–2	1–3		0–5	1–1
Kildare County		0–2				0–1		1–5	2–3			1–2
Limerick	6–1	3–0	2–3			2–1	3–3				2–1
Longford Town	3–0		1–2	1–2			1–4		0–4
Mervue United	3–1	0–1			0–1			2–4	1–4	1–2
Monaghan United			6–1			4–2		0–3	2–2			3–0
Shelbourne	0–0			3–3	4–5					2–2		1–2
Sporting Fingal	2–3	4–1		2–1				2–2		1–0		0–1
UCD			5–0	2–1	2–1		3–0				2–3	2–0
Waterford United			2–0		1–0	1–0	0–2	0–1	0–0
Wexford Youths		1–0		2–0	1–1	0–0					0–0

Source: loi.ie
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Promotion/relegation play-offs

The second and third placed First Division teams, Shelbourne and Sporting Fingal played off to decide who would play the winner of the Premier Division play-off. The winner of this play off would play in the 2010 Premier Division.

First Division

Shelbourne v Sporting Fingal

10 November 2009	Shelbourne	1 – 2	Sporting Fingal	Tolka Park
19:45 GMT	McAllister 72' (pen.) Flood  73'	Report	Zayed 39' Williams 41'	Attendance: 1,632 Referee: T. Connolly

First Division v Premier Division

Sporting Fingal v Bray Wanderers

13 November 2009	Sporting Fingal	2 – 0	Bray Wanderers	Morton Stadium
19:45 GMT	Paisley 51' Byrne 67'	Report		Attendance: 740 Referee: D. Tomney

Bray Wanderers v Sporting Fingal

16 November 2009	Bray Wanderers	2 – 2	Sporting Fingal	Carlisle Grounds
19:45 GMT	Flood 83' O'Connor 90+1'	Report	Zayed 59' Bayly 90+2'	Referee: D. Hanney

Sporting Fingal won 4–2 on aggregate and were promoted to the Premier Division.

Top scorers

Scorer	Team	Goals
Conan Byrne	Sporting Fingal[1]	21
Karl Bermingham	Monaghan United	17
Graham Cummins	Waterford United	17
David McAllister	Shelbourne	16
Ciarán Kilduff	UCD	14
Stephen O'Flynn	Limerick F.C.	14

See also

• 2009 League of Ireland Premier Division
• 2009 League of Ireland Cup
• 2009 A Championship