2015 League of Ireland First Division

The 2015 League of Ireland First Division season was the 31st season of the League of Ireland First Division. The First Division was contested by eight teams. Wexford Youths won the title and Finn Harps were also promoted after winning a play off.

League of Ireland First Division

Season	2015
Champions	Wexford Youths
Promoted	Finn Harps
Top goalscorer	Daniel Furlong: 30 (Wexford Youths)[1]
← 2014 2016 →

Teams

Athlone Town

Cobh Ramblers

Finn Harps

Waterford United

Wexford Youths

Dublin

Dublin teams
Cabinteely
Shelbourne
UCD

Locations of the First Division teams

Stadia and locations

Team	Location	Stadium
Athlone Town	Athlone	Athlone Town Stadium
Cabinteely	Cabinteely	Stradbrook Road
Cobh Ramblers	Cobh	St. Colman's Park
Finn Harps	Ballybofey	Finn Park
Shelbourne	Drumcondra	Tolka Park
UCD	Belfield	UCD Bowl
Waterford United	Waterford	Waterford RSC
Wexford Youths	Crossabeg	Ferrycarrig Park

Personnel and kits

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

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Athlone Town	Eddie Wallace Alan Mathews	Brian Shortall	Nike	Nitro Sports
Cabinteely	Eddie Gormley		Umbro
Cobh Ramblers	Martin Cambridge Stephen Henderson		Nike	Eirgrid
Finn Harps	Ollie Horgan	Kevin McHugh	Legea	McGettigan Group
Shelbourne	Kevin Doherty (footballer)		Macron
UCD	Collie O'Neill	Robbie Benson	O'Neills	O'Neills
Waterford United	Tommy Griffin Roddy Collins	Vinny Sullivan	Macron	SportsWorld
Wexford Youths	Shane Keegan	Graham Doyle	O'Neills	Galenisys

Overview

Shelbourne

UCD

Cabinteely

Locations of Dublin First Division teams

The 2015 First Division featured eight teams. Each team played each other four times, twice at home and twice away, for a total of 28 matches during the season.^[2] Wexford Youths secured their first League of Ireland First Division title and promotion to the Premier Division with a 3–0 victory against Athlone Town at Ferrycarrig Park. The Youths goals came from Danny Furlong, Eric Molloy and Aidan Keenan.^[3]

Final table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Wexford Youths (C, P)	28	20	1	7	63	32	+31	61	Promotion to League of Ireland Premier Division
2	Finn Harps (O, P)	28	16	7	5	42	23	+19	55	Qualification for Promotion play-offs
3	UCD	28	14	7	7	51	26	+25	49
4	Shelbourne	28	13	6	9	37	34	+3	45
5	Athlone Town	28	9	6	13	36	42	−6	33
6	Cobh Ramblers	28	8	6	14	27	45	−18	30
7	Waterford United	28	5	6	17	25	51	−26	21
8	Cabinteely	28	5	5	18	22	50	−28	20

Source:
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted

Results

Matches 1–14

Home \ Away	ATH	CAB	COB	FHA	SHE	UCD	WAT	WEX
Athlone Town		2–2	4–0	1–0	2–3	1–1	1–0	0–1
Cabinteely	2–0		2–2	1–1	0–1	0–2	1–0	1–0
Cobh Ramblers	1–0	1–0		2–3	1–0	0–3	1–0	1–4
Finn Harps	1–0	2–0	2–0		1–0	2–2	3–2	1–3
Shelbourne	1–3	1–0	1–1	0–0		0–2	1–0	2–4
UCD	1–2	6–1	1–1	2–2	0–1		3–0	4–1
Waterford United	1–1	3–1	1–1	0–2	2–2	0–0		1–4
Wexford Youths	2–0	7–0	1–0	0–1	2–3	1–0	1–2

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 15–28

Home \ Away	ATH	CAB	COB	FHA	SHE	UCD	WAT	WEX
Athlone Town		0–1	1–4	1–1	2–1	2–2	3–4	3–1
Cabinteely	1–3		1–0	2–3	0–1	0–3[a]	1–1	2–3
Cobh Ramblers	2–1	2–1		0–1	2–2	1–1	0–2	0–3
Finn Harps	0–0	1–0	2–0		1–0	3–0	0–0	4–1
Shelbourne	3–1	0–0	2–0	3–2		2–1	3–0	0–0
UCD	3–1	1–0	3–0	1–0	2–1		5–1	1–2
Waterford United	0–1	1–0	1–3	0–3	1–2	0–1		2–3
Wexford Youths	3–0	3–2	2–1	2–0	4–1	1–0	4–0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

1. Cabinteely fielded an ineligible player, Dean Ebbe, in their game against UCD on 31 July 2015. They lost 3–1. The FAI subsequently awarded the match to UCD as a 3–0 win and fined Cabinteely €2,500.^[4]

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Daniel Furlong	Wexford Youths	30
2	Ryan Swan	UCD	12
3	Philip Gorman	Athlone Town	10
4	Kevin McHugh	Finn Harps	9

Source:^[1][5]

Promotion/relegation playoffs

The second and third placed First Division teams, Finn Harps and UCD, played off to decide who would play Limerick, the eleventh placed team from the Premier Division. The winner of this play off would play in the 2016 Premier Division.^[2]

First Division

UCD v Finn Harps

23 October 2015	UCD	0–1	Finn Harps	UCD Bowl
19:45			Coll 1'

Finn Harps v UCD

30 October 2015	Finn Harps	2–1	UCD	Finn Park
19:45	Boyle 76' Mailey 89'		O'Connor 59'

Finn Harps won 3 – 1 on aggregate

First Division v Premier Division

Limerick v Finn Harps

2 November 2015	Limerick	1–0	Finn Harps	Markets Field
	Kelly 34'	Report		Referee: Rob Rogers

Finn Harps v Limerick

6 November 2015	Finn Harps	2–0 (a.e.t.)	Limerick	Finn Park
	Funston 38' Banda 117'			Attendance: 3,200 Referee: Derek Tomney

Finn Harps won 2–1 on aggregate and were promoted to 2016 Premier Division. Limerick are relegated to the 2016 First Division.

See also

• 2015 League of Ireland Premier Division
• 2015 League of Ireland Cup