First and foremost i'd like to extend my congratulations to the fans and players of Dublin City.
I'm a football researcher from England and following City's recent success am looking to find out some specifics regarding the team.
Can anyone let me know specific player positions, Keeley's favoured formations, average attendance figures and if there is anything else anybody thinks I should know about Dublin City FC post it here!
Congratulations Again
Here's some stats for this season. All stats include the 2 leg promotion/relegation playoffs.
Wins: 16
Draws:15
Losses:7
Goals for: 60 - Goals against: 36
Scorers: Michael Holt (striker) 4(before leaving for England to be with his wife), Robbie Collins (str)11, Trevor Vaughan (captain) (str)8, Phillip Gorman (str) 5 (before leaving with the Irish Army), Dave Freeman (str) 9, Dave McGill (mid) 3, Alan Mulcahy (mid) 2, Alan Kelly (mid) 3, Paul Shields (mid) 1, Ray Scully (mid) 1, Brian Kelly (def) 1, Ben Whelehan (voted Player of the Year by the Supporters Club) (def) 3, Derek Pender (def) 1, Aidan Lynch (def) 2, Alan Keely (managers son) (def) 1 (voted Goal of the Season by the Supporters Club), Robbie Hedderman (def) 1, James Duff (U21 defender) 1, Chris Deans (who was let go and only scored in the League Cup) 1. There were 2 og's.
Clean Sheets: 13 - One goal wins 5 - Two goal wins 6 - Three goal wins - 3 Four goal wins -2-
Longest Run of Draws- 4- Longest run of wins -4- Longest run of losses- 3-
Best run of the season was the closing 6 games 2 draws and four wins that clinched promotion.
The team lined out 4-4-2 most of the time apart from a 4-3-3 experiment (which seemed to work) when David Freeman arrived on loan from Drogheda and Keely put Freeman, Collins and Gorman (or Vaughan) all up together.
This was the look of the team towards the end of the season;
James Gallagher (until he got the flu and let Brendan Kennedy back in for the final 3 games)
Derek Pender (right-full) Ben Whelehan&Alan Keely Robbie Hedderman (left-full) Although Aidan Lynch came in for both full backs on numerous occasions
Robbie Collins (switched to the right wing) McGill&Shields Ray Scully (left-mid) Scully is a central midfielder who came in in place of A Kelly for the later parts of the season and did very well.
David Freeman and Trevor Vaughan up front. They were in place for the run-in but our strikers were all over the place during the season. 2 left and Freeman was brought in. Vaughan had a slow start which went from bad to worse and sat out much of the middle of the year. He hit some form in the final two months, scoring from play () and set pieces. He recived Player of the Month award for October from the Supporters Club. He had been the sides penalty taker, but a miss of collosal proportion from the spot saw David Freeman step up and take the final 2/3 spot kicks of the season.
A stat worth noting is that every senior player (bar Kevin Williamson who came late from Galway and rarely featured) scored at least once. Making Dublin City the second highest scorers of all 22 clubs in the league.
Dermot Keely's approach was quite Draconian, in the sense that flair was a luxury rarely afforded. Based on a solid back four, he likes his sides to feed the front men as often and as quickly as possible, looking to then link up the players running from midfield. This is a tried and trusted technique, but falls down if you're defence becomes leaky or your front men can't find the net.
If I was to compile a list of players from the squad of 2005 that I would keep as a manager facing into a highly competitive Premier Division campaign this would be it; Dave Freeman, Robbie Collins (in a perfect world Michael Holt, but I doubt he's ever coming back) Dave McGill, Ray Scully, Ben Whelehan, Alan Keely, Derek Pender and Aidan Lynch (others would certainly look to Paul Shields, I'm not 100% convinced personally). Some of the above would most certainly be squad players, but useful ones. Assuming that is that you are given the finances to purchase a higher calibre of player also.
Hope that's a help to you. Need anything else just ask.
Average attendences were poor, and I wouldn't attepmt to doctor them by counting the final "home leg" at Tolka Park where 2,000 or so showed up.
A bad home crowd would have been 90 or so. A good home crowd would have been 200/250ish. When teams (notably Sligo Rovers) brought good away crowds we were talking 450 or so. I can't be certain about these, but I rarely missed a game.
Fantastic information. Cheers!!!
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