History
[Football comes to Sligo]
[Embryonic Reds] [Rovers
enter Senior football] [Champions 1936/37]
[Championship defence] [Dixie's
cup final] [The end of the first decade]
Sligo Rovers was founded in 1928 from an amalgamation
of two junior sides Sligo Town and Sligo Blues. They were formed on September
27th 1928. Their first game was a 9-1 win against Ballyshannon
on September 23rd 1928 in the first Connaught cup. They eventually
went out of this competition at the semi-final stage to Athlone Hibs. In the
clubs formative years they played in junior football circles. In their first
season as a junior club they won what was arguably the hardest trophy in the
country to win. This was the Irish Free State junior Cup in which they defeated
the Dublin club Grangegorman in the final at the Showgrounds in front of a
crowd of 3,000. The final took place on Sunday May 5th and Rovers were victorious
on a 3-0 scoreline. This was followed by the Connaught Junior Cup in 1930
and the Miller Shield and Sunday Alliance league in 1932. A number of the
Rovers players of this era represented Ireland at Junior level. These included
Terry Rooney, Paddy Mc Gowan, Johnny Mc Manus, "Bunny" Fallon and "Guy" Callaghan.
From their formative years the club has played it's games at the Showgrounds
In August 1932 Rovers entered the Leinster senior league. In their first season
they finished third with notable victories against the Champions Brideville
(twice) and Bohemians 'B'. Rovers record in their first season in the Leinster
senior league was
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | 19 | 3 | 8 | 89 | 53 | 41 |
For their first season in the league Rovers employed
Englishman Bob Preston as their coach. Preston had previously coached
at Shelbourne and Bray Unknowns. This first season in the league proved to
be quite successful. Their first competitive match as a senior team was against
St. James Gate at the Iveagh Grounds in Crumlin and resulted in a 3-1 defeat
in the shield. Tommy Callaghan became the first Rovers player to score
in senior football. A week later the first home match was played at the Showgrounds
and Dolphin had an easy 4 - 0 win over Rovers. It took five games in the shield
before the Rovers registered their first win in senior football against Cork.
Two goals from Gerry Mc Daid and one from Paddy Monaghan helped
Rovers to a 3 -2 win. Rovers eventually finished ninth in the shield and looked
forward to the start of their first league campaign.
The first league match played by the club was also against St. James Gate
on October 28th 1934 and resulted in a 3-2 defeat with Gerry
Mc Daid scoring the first league goal for Rovers and James Mc Cann
adding the second. Their first league win came on November 11th
when Mc Daid scored four times as Rovers beat Waterford 8 - 2. In this
first campaign Rovers eventually finished third behind Dolphin and St. James
Gate eight points behind the winners and seven points adrift of second place.
This first season yielded 44 goals from 18 games. The 1934/35 seasons Cup
campaign was also reasonably successful. Rovers beat St. James' Gate 3 - 1
in the first round replay after a 1 - 1 draw in the original game. A crowd
of 16,000 turned up at the The Iveagh Grounds in Crumlin for the first game.
Cork were thrashed 5 - 1 in the second round, again at the Showgrounds. The
club was eventally eliminated at the semi-final stage of the cup by Dundalk
(0-2) who in turn lost the final to Bohemians.
Rovers finished off their first season in senior football by finishing second
in the Dublin City cup, losing out to Dolphin. In March Rovers winger Paddy
Monaghan was chosen to play for the Irish league against the Welsh league.
He followed this up by in May of 1935 by becaming the first and so far the
only Rovers player to be capped while playing with the club. He was awarded
two caps against Switzerland in Basle on May 5th and Germany in Dortmund On
May 8th . Unfortunately both games ended in defeat 0-1 and 1-3 respectively.
James Mc Cann was appointed player coach
for the second season in the Free State league. The team opened the shield
campaign with an 8-2 victory against Bray Unknowns in front of 2,000 people
at the Showgrounds. Rovers started their second season in fine form. In the
shield they had six wins and four draws losing a single match. In their eleven
games they scored 33 goals conceding only sixteen. This form was not good
enough to win the shield, however, and they eventually finished third, two
points behind winners St. James Gate and one behind runners-up Druncondra.
The second league campaign in 1935/36 started with a 1 - 2 defeat to Dolphin.
Up until Christmas Rovers form was not good with only two victories. This
run also included a 7 - 0 defeat against Bohemians.
There was an individual honour in December for Rovers full back Gerry Westby.
He was chosen as first reserve for the international team for a game against
Holland, but he was not called from the bench. Rovers poor form was mainly
due to injuries and by the new year the squad had been strengthened. The result
was an improvement in form which saw Rovers win four games in succession including
the first round of the cup against Hospitals Trust (5 - 2). The run was ended
when Drumcondra defeated Rovers 3 - 2 in the second round of the cup after
two replays. Rovers finished off the league campaign as they had started with
mixed form which eventually saw the club finish in eight position in the league.
On this occasion the goal scoring return was 48 from 22 games an average of
2.18 goals per game. Rovers were eliminated in the second round of the Dublin
City cup by Cork 1 - 0 after receiving a bye in the first round.
Rovers shield campaign of 1936/37 gave no indication
of what was to follow. Only two wins, four draws and five defeats left Rovers
in tenth place. But as the campaign was unfolding Rovers had been slowly but
surely assembling the side which they hoped would do better in the league.
Jimmy Surgeoner was given the job of bringing in the new players who would
challange for the league.
Rovers started their third league campaign in blistering form winning their first eleven games in a row leaving them well clear at the top of the league at the half way stage. The run was eventually ended by their nearest rivals, at this point, Waterford who hammered Rovers 8 - 2. Their form dropped slightly in the second half of the season where they secured five wins, two draws and three more defeats. The league title was clinched in the second last game of the season with a 4 - 3 win away to Cork on April 11th. This was good enough to secure the club it’s first league championship eventually finishing ten points ahead of second place Dundalk. A week after the Cork game the league trophy was presented to the club at the league match against Bray Unknowns. To put the championship victory in perspective Rovers had become the first club to take the league title outside Leinster. Rovers first eleven for the championship season was:
Robert Blair Jimmy Surgeoner Willie Nash Freddie Dykes Pat O'Kane Billy Miller Lewis Hughes Jimmy Duncan Robert Gourlay Paddy Monaghan Harry Litherlan
The final league table in their championship
winning season was:
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sligo Rovers | 22 | 16 | 2 | 4 | 68 | 30 | 38 | 34 |
| Dundalk | 22 | 10 | 4 | 8 | 41 | 34 | 7 | 24 |
| Waterford AFC | 22 | 12 | 0 | 10 | 59 | 49 | 10 | 24 |
| Bray Unknowns | 22 | 10 | 4 | 8 | 30 | 39 | -9 | 24 |
| St. James Gate | 22 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 63 | 43 | 20 | 23 |
| Drumcondra | 22 | 10 | 3 | 9 | 41 | 47 | -6 | 23 |
| Bohemians | 22 | 10 | 2 | 10 | 54 | 56 | -2 | 22 |
| ShelbourneB> | 22 | 9 | 3 | 10 | 53 | 48 | 5 | 21 |
| Shamrock Rovers | 22 | 8 | 3 | 11 | 46 | 55 | -9 | 19 |
| Dolphin FC | 22 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 33 | 59 | 26 | 18 |
| Cork FC | 22 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 51 | 60 | -9 | 17 |
| Brideville | 22 | 6 | 3 | 13 | 32 | 51 | -19 | 15 |
The Rovers secured their second trophy of the
year when they beat Dundalk 2-0 to win the Dublin City Cup. Litherland
put Rovers in front after he received a pass from Hughes and beat four Dundalk
layers before scoring. Hughes added the second when he got on the end
of a cross from Paddy Monaghan. In many ways this was a record breaking season
with the final goal tally of 68 goals from 22 games a club record to this
day. Centre forward Harry Litherland’s
haul of 19 league goals also remains a club record. Added to this record wins
at home (Dolphin 9-0) and away (Shamrock Rovers 6-1) capped a truly remarkable
season. The record away win was to last until the 1951/52 season when Shamrock
Rovers were again the victims (6-0).
How the 1936/37 Championship was won
In fact the only disappointing aspect of the
season was the cup where Rovers beat Bohemians in the first round 6 - 1 only
to lose to St. James Gate 6 - 2 in the second round.
The 1937/38 season saw the championship squad
breaking up. Of the team which lined out for the opening game of the season
in the Dublin city cup only Lewis Hughes, Billy Harrigan and Paddy Monaghan
remained from the side which had been so successful the previous year. Former
Rangers, Chelsea and Cardiff player Bob Mc Auley was appointed as player coach
as Rovers set out to defend their championship. Mc Auley had also won three
caps for Scotland. Bohemians knocked Rovers out of the Dublin city cup in
the second round after the team had beaten Bray Unknowns in the first. Rovers
finished ninth in the shield after an up and down campaign. They lost their
first two games and then won five in a row to move into a challanging position.
Then five defeats in a row saw them drop down the table. Mc Auley left the
club during the shield after he wa forced to serve a suspension for a sending
off. He was replaced as player coach by Billy Miller a, a veteran of the championship
side.
The champions started the league campaign in poor form suffering defeat in
the first three games which meant that they had now lost a total of seven
games in a row. They soon stabilised the situation and eventually finishing
sixth in the league. They did however maintain their impressive goalscoring
form scoring 55 goals in 22 league games. Rovers defence of their first championship
was to be very disappointing. They eventually finished fifth but this only
told half the story. They were thirteen points behind champions Shamrock Rovers
and eight points behind fourth placed St. James Gate. Crowda were poor during
the season and Rovers finances were in the red at the end of the season. This
situation would repeat itself many times during the club's history. Rovers
went out of the cup in the first round to Dundalk after losing 2 - 0 in a
replay after drawing 1-1 in the Showgrounds in front of a crowd of 5,000.
The second world war broke out in 1938 leading to the suspension of most of
Europe's football leagues however Ireland's neutrality meant that play continued
in the League of Ireland. Rovers started the season by exiting from the city
cup to Bray Unknowns. Rovers shield campaign saw them unbeaten in their first
six games, but they faded during the rest of the tournament to finish off
the pace..
Cranston Mc Daid Livesley Peachey Hay Burns Began Monaghan O'Connor JohnstonDean
For the replay Graham replaced left half Burns in the Rovers team. Back to the top of the page
The 1939/40 season was again reasonably successful
for Rovers. They went out of the city cup in the first round after a defeat
by Shelbourne. Rovers then won six of their shield games, drawing two more,
to finish top with Bohemians. Rovers lost the play-off for the shield at Shelbourne
park, 3-2, with Rovers goals coming from ex-Celtic player Mattie Began and
Jimmy Connor. Rovers started the league campaign strongly and lost only two
of their first eleven games. They eventually finised third in the league eight
points behind the winners St. James Gate and two behind second placed Shamrock
Rovers.
Rovers opened their cup campaign with a 3 - 2 win over non-league Cobh Ramblers.
Rovers then defeated Brideville 2 - 0 in the second round to reach the semi-finals.
Rovers then defeated league leaders St. James Gate in the semi-final to reach
their second Cup final. The goals were scored by Sam Prout (a penalty)
and Matt Began, in front of 22,751 fans at Dalymount Park. 38,500 fans
turrned up for the final at Dalymount Park but once again there was heartbreak
as Shamrock Rovers won the final comfortably 3-0. Rovers team in the final
was:
Twomey Thompson Powell Arrigan Mc Cann Peachey Began Prout Gregg Connor Mc Aleer
This was to be Rovers most consistent decade in the League of Ireland.
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