Salthill Devon FC: From Obscurity To European Glory

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1977

Cairdeas Tre Spoirt
(Friendship Through Sports)


June-August 2019


Irish Premier Division


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We had a really good run in the IPL for these ten games only losing once. Surprisingly it was a 3-0 loss to Derry. A massive 4-3 win away to Sligo was a huge game and we were pretty consistent here even with our Europa League qualifiers scattered through.


League Standings/Player Stats


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One point behind Sligo with a game in hand proving how crucial that win against them was. A big gap developing again between the top three and the rest. Brian Kelly is once again proving how good a youngster he is on a consistent basis leading the average rating charts, showing that our academy can provide players of this quality. As we go further into Europe over the coming seasons and have more money at our disposal to improve our youth and training facilities I hope to one day have so many talented youngsters that I'm left with no choice but to sell some!


Irish League Cup 2019


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We needed an injury time winner from Brian Kelly to get past Cobh in the quarters and that man popped up with a hat trick in the semi against St Pat's which took us through to the final against our title rivals Sligo.


Irish League Cup Final 2019 vs Sligo Rovers


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Another trophy added to the cabinet! A convincing win in the final where we sat back and countered to perfection. Young David Folan who scored a pair of goals against Bilbao in the Europa League last season comes up trumps in this one for us.


Senior Challenge Cup 2019


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Sligo exact some sort of revenge against us in the semi's to knock us out. We almost didn't make it through the third round needing a replay to get past Drogheda. Used this competition to blood some youth/reserve players so I'm happy to have made it as far as we did.


Europa League Qualifiers


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A quite incredible set of results here sees us score 32 goals in 8 games to make it through to the group stages for the second time running! An unbelievable 16-1 aggregate over Rhyl in the first qualifying round set the tone for the following rounds where we round it off with a 5-0 drubbing of FH in the final playoff round. Beating anyone 9-0 when your a club like Salthill Devon is extraordinary let alone a fellow European qualifier.


Salthill Record Biggest Ever Win


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Record Attendance Broken By Salthill


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Amazing that we managed to get 15,000 to one game considering it would normally take about 75 league games to match that. More astonishing is that it came against FH when we could only get 1,700 to come out and see Bilbao.


Salthill Set New Gate Receipts High


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An amazing 230K from one game is extraordinary. Hopefully is we ever make the Champions League group stages that's the kind of money we'll be looking at on a regular basis.


Europa League Prize Money


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Another million into the coffers helps to keep us in the black for another season. If we can jag a few results that'll allow me to reinforce the squad for next year.


Keogh Breaks Assists Record


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The season not done yet and already our right winger has made 20 assists! A really good pick up from Cork City who has been able to adapt quickly and score some goals as well.


IPL Manager Of The Month Award For July


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European Club Rankings Announced


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Moving up 500 places to be in the top 300 clubs in Europe is a huge honour. Who would have thought all those years ago this amateur club in the Irish First Division would be anywhere near where it is today.


Key Players


I've got to stick with the two guys that I mentioned in my last post Phillip Keogh and Brian Kelly. Both have been instrumental in our push for the title, contributing both goals and assists in abundance.
 
Seeing as everyone is on FM15 now I thought I'd do one final update to show how this story finished up.
 
618831d1403554971-salthill-devon-fc-obscurity-european-glory-129404.png
1977

Cairdeas Tre Spoirt
(Friendship Through Sports)


The Final Post


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The 2019 season saw us win the IPD over Sligo Rovers by three points. Brian Kelly's 15 goals and Phillip Keogh's 11 assists helping us on our way.


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We did the double by overcoming Sligo Rovers in the League Cup Final making this my 4th trophy in 7 seasons.


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We finished bottom of our group but managed a win against Panathinaikos.


In Season 2020 we were made equal favourites with Sligo for the title. We qualified for the Champions League Group Stages with a 5-3 agg win over FC Kobenhaven


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We didn't disappoint, retaining our title by three points again this time to Dundalk.


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We also beat Dundalk to win another All Ireland Cup


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And beat Cork City to with my first Senior Challenge Cup meaning I had now won every domestic competition available to me in eight years!


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Only the one point in our first ever Champions League Group but against Napoli is incredible. At the end of this season we finally became professional and improved our youth facilities.


My final full season, 2021 saw us made equal favourites again with Sligo. With the clubs coffers full of Champions League money we were able to sign Steven Naismith, James McClean, Paul Dummett and Austin Lipman who had terrorised the IPD for Dundalk over the past few years. We made the Champions League group stages again this year knocking out Olympiacos 6-2 on agg.


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We played catch up all season and even winning our last 10 games straight wasn't enough to overhaul Sligo who took out the title by one point.


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We did manage to beat them in the All Ireland Cup Final to make it three in a row.


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We also managed my most impressive achievement, fitting it should be in my last full season. We finished our Champions League Group Stage in third position, beating and drawing with Spartak Moscow to reach the Europa League Knockout Stages!!!


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We didn't stop there either beating Cagliari 5-3 on agg to make the 2nd Knockout Stage!!!!! We unfortunately were knocked out by Gladbach in the next round 6-2 on agg.

I've played as far as April 2022 where we are second in the league and into another All Ireland Cup Final. I managed to sign some mentors for my younger players. These include: Ben Amos, Alex Pearce, Andy Carroll, Theo Walcott and Danny Rose.

Below are a few screenshots concerning the clubs trophy haul, our playing records, my management history and biography.


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Finally to everyone out there who has viewed or replied to my story thank you very much for taking the time out to get into it, it was your encouragement that kept me going. I hope you had as much fun following it as I have had making it. I will be doing another story for FM15, not as Salthill Devon unfortunately but for now I'm going to take a break from FM but I'll be back soon enough.

Thanks again and bye for now.
 
Unfortunately mate everything got deleted when I bought FM15. Couldn't fit both on my laptop so FM14 had to go.
 
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