2015 Airtricity League Table Predictions

With little over a day until the kick-off of this year’s SSE Airtricity League of Ireland campaign we have polled the extratime.ie family as to who will finish where in both the Premier and First Divisions, and the results are in.

Twenty-five of our reporters and photographers sent in their predictions and with this information we have produced the league tables our people expect to see come next October. Each of our experts listed their projected league tables in order from top to bottom. We added each club’s predicted positions together with the lowest score indicating who we expect to win each division and the highest score signalling the team we predict to finish bottom of their respective leagues. And the results are not entirely unexpected.

PREMIER DIVISION

Four clubs were tipped to win the Premier Division league title by at least one of our correspondents and no-one will be surprised to hear that those four clubs were, in order of popularity, Dundalk (9 votes), St Patrick’s Athletic (6), Cork City (5) and Shamrock Rovers (5).

Perhaps the only surprise was that nobody thought that Sligo Rovers might pip the favourites. Owen Heary has put together an impressive squad at The Showgrounds but the highest anyone thought they would finish was third (3 votes). 

At the other end of the table, 13 of our 25 predictors (more than half) selected Bray Wanderers as the most likely team to finish in bottom place. Five people thought Limerick FC would get the wooden spoon while Drogheda United (3), Galway United FC (3) and Longford Town (2) were also singled out as potential candidates for automatic relegation.

FIRST DIVISION

Shelbourne were the most popular choice for First Division title winners, securing 16 out of 25 votes. The next most likely champions were UCD who were tipped by just four of our voters. Wexford Youths have never looked likely to win this division in the past but three people think they might do it this year while relegated Athlone Town got just two votes out of twenty-five.

As for who would finish bottom of the eight First division teams, well, the vote was comprehensive. Only two people thought Cabinteely wouldn’t finish last and they both reckoned the League’s new boys would finish seventh. The renegade pair gave their votes for last place to Waterford United (1) and Finn Harps (1).

The perception that Cobh Ramblers have greatly improved their squad over the winter wasn’t reflected in our voting patterns. They finished seventh in our table, though Rams fans might find some comfort in the fact that three of our voters placed them as high as fourth. Nor did anyone think they would finish last. The lowest vote Martin Cambridge’s side received was seventh but nine out of twenty-five thought that this is where they will finish.