Extratime.ie Staff Season Predictions 2018

We don't know about anybody else, but that off-season flew by – three-and-a-half months is barely long enough to catch your breath these days.

 

And so the 2018 SSE Airtricity League season is already upon us, with the Premier Division kicking off a week earlier than the lower tier this season, having been brought forward.

 

It's all change at both levels this year as last year's 12-team Premier Division has been whittled down to ten, and the First Division increased to the same number from eight.

 

The more even spread of teams between leagues promises to result in more intense competition at both levels, and our team of writers and photographers have been given the unenviable task of predicting how it will all pan out.

 

But first, a look at last year's predictions and how well (or how badly) our team called it. As it happens, not too badly.

 



While we incorrectly predicted that Dundalk would top the Premier Division from eventual champions, they were separated by the slimmest of margins (well, almost) – 249 points to 247.

 

We had Shamrock Rovers and Derry City correctly third and fourth, and Drogheda United and Finn Harps to get relegated, we failed to predict the relegation battles St Patrick's Athletic and Sligo Rovers would face and had both sides in the top six.

 

In the first half we had Waterford correctly on top and UCD third, but otherwise struggled with Longford Town's optimistic second-place prediction a particular outlier.

 



So how will we do this season? Once again, clubs have been allocated points based on predicted position and the final tallies ranked in order.

 

 

PREMIER DIVISION

 

Cork City267
Dundalk258
Shamrock Rovers220
Derry City163
St Patrick's Athletic151
Bohemians130
Waterford118
Sligo Rovers108
Limerick60
Bray Wanderers49

 

 

 

FIRST DIVISION

 

Galway United226
Finn Harps194
Drogheda United172
Cobh Ramblers165
Longford Town155
Shelbourne144
UCD140
Cabinteely99
Wexford71
Athlone Town46

 

 

What do you think of our predictions? Let us know below the line or on social media @ExtratimeNews.