Shamrock Rovers first FAI Cup win came in their undefeated 1925 season

In the build up to what is the 100th FAI Cup Final, Macdara Ferris has been looking back this week at past Shamrock Rovers successes in FAI Cup Finals.

We looked at last year's victory, the double win from 35 years ago and their 10th FAI Cup crown won 75 years ago - and now finally their very first FAI Cup success in 1925.

On Sunday evening not much further away than an Alan Mannus long kick out from where the club was founded in 1899, Shamrock Rovers can claim their 26th FAI Cup crown.

The Hoops, formed in Ringsend’s Shamrock Avenue, played in the very first FAI Cup final, as a non-league club, back in 1922.

They would lose to St. James’ Gate after a replay but three years later Rovers would win the first of their record 25 cups.

That first cup success came in a Ringsend derby win over Shelbourne in a year when the Hoops claimed the treble of League, FAI Cup and League Shield in a season when they went undefeated.

1n 1925 they won 24 games and drew seven across all three competitions.

This is the last time a team won a league and cup going undeafted and this Rovers team has the chance to equal that record this weekend.

They come into this Sunday's game undefeated in domestic action - winning 18 games and drawing three across all competitions - applying today's points-per-game statistics, in 1925 they earned 2.55 compared with 2.71 this season.

In 1925, two of Rovers' famous Four Fs got on the score sheet, in the final that was played on St. Patrick’s Day final, with Hoops captain Bob Fullam and John Joe Flood. Alongside Billy ‘Juicy’ Farrell and John ‘Krugar’ Fagan, Rovers potent strikeforce scored 101 goals across that season.

That equates to (3.26 goals per game compared with 2020 when the Hoops have netted 51 times in the league and cup (2.42 goals per game).

A crowd of 23,000 packed into Dalymount Park for the 1925 final. The Irish Independent the next day noted that ‘every possible vantage point was occupied, and the tops of the covered stands accommodated some of the more daring spectators, who made sure of securing an uninterrupted view.’ 

Those in attendance saw Rovers go 2-0 up before William ‘Sacky’ Glen put through his own goal to give Shels a lifeline. The Rovers goalkeeper Paddy O’Reilly held firm in the remaining 25 minutes to win successive cup finals, having won with Athlone Town the previous season. 

The Hoops were deemed the best team on the day according to the Indo. ‘Dalymount Park presented a wonderful game yesterday on the occasion of the Free State Cup final between Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne, which the former won 2-1 after a stiff struggle.

‘Victory undoubted went to the better team. Had the Rovers forwards accepted all the scoreable chances which they got theirs would have been a handsome win'.

For Glen, it would be the first of a record eight FAI Cup wins – a feat only Johnny Fullam managed to match in later year. 

Glen would go on to be a central part of Rovers five-in-row side that went unbeaten in the cup from 1929 and 1933 before winning his final FAI Cup trophy with Shels in 1936. 

Stephen Bradley seeking history as Hoops look for first unbeaten double for 95 years https://t.co/996s0Zxvr6pic.twitter.com/Le0HWRSVEl

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) November 29, 2020