A Season in Review - Shelbourne

League: 8^th

FAI Cup: Semi-finals

League Cup: Last 16

Player of the Season: Kevin Dawson

Young player of the Season: Lorcan Fitzgerald

Top scorer: Philip Hughes

Goal of the season

Conan Byrne versus Drogheda United in Tolka Park.

Highlight of the season

The highlight has to be the victory over Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Cup Quarter-Final. It was the best performance of the year by a long way and sparked scenes of jubilation that hadn’t been seen in Tolka since promotion back to the Premier Division a year previously.

Lowlight of the season

The 0-3 loss to Derry City in the FAI Cup Semi-Final was extremely disappointing for Shels. After a decent first-half The Reds were horrendous in the second period and were well and truly played off the pitch in their own back-yard.

Summary of the campaign
At the beginning of the season there was a strong sense of relief and excitement around Tolka Park as most fans were happy just to be back in the Premier Division. The majority of fans would gladly have taken seventh or eighth place and a consolidation of position in the top flight if it had been offered in March. The season started quite well with a draw against Sligo Rovers in the opening game followed by victories over Bohemians and Derry City. The fourth game of the season however saw Shels lose 4-0 to Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght. After that a good run of form began to unravel a bit.

Although an eighth place finish at the end of the year was what had been realistically aimed for at the start of the season, it seemed that with the squad that Shels had they could have finished much higher. Teams such as Bohemians and Cork City were operating on much smaller budgets than Shels but still managed to finish higher. The major downfall was Shels’ home form: eight losses in Tolka Park (including five in a row) just isn’t good enough at this level.

To conclude, the positive that can be taken from the season is the consolidation of Shels’ place amongst the elite of Irish football but a lot of work must be done during the off-season.

What needs to be done in the off-season

Unfortunately Kevin Dawson and David Cassidy have left Shels already this transfer window. Both of those players were essential for The Reds over the past few years (Dawson especially last year) and will be sorely missed. Positives to be taken so far are that Philly Hughes and Glen Cronin have re-signed. Keeping Hughes was very important as his goals were relied on a lot last year and one has to think that it will be the similar next year. Another striker certainly needs to be brought in over the next few weeks in order to take some of that pressure of Hughes’s shoulders. An experienced first team goalkeeper is also essential for Shels with Dean Delany recently signing for Bohs, and the fact that The Reds currently only have one goalkeeper in their ranks (that being 19-year-old Niall Burdon). Changes certainly need to be made all around Tolka Park but with the board already have stated that they will be operating on a significantly lower budget this year, those changes could be difficult to implement.