Bohemians and St Patrick’s Athletic have both made steps forward over the last calendar year. But ultimately when the medals are handed out, it’s still Shamrock Rovers sitting pretty after another campaign in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division.
Stephen Bradley’s side sealed a sixth league title in seven seasons on Friday as they got the business done against Sligo Rovers and results elsewhere went their way.
While the campaign has been tricky at times for the Hoops, the onus remains on the chasing pack to bridge the gap going into 2027.
On this week’s RTÉ Soccer Podcast, past title winners Alan Cawley and Conan Byrne had their say on the challenges facing the two closest teams to Rovers this year, namely Pat’s and Bohs.
While ex-Saints winger Byrne feels his former club are “better” than they were this time last year when they had finished fifth and missed out on Europe, they remain “consistently inconsistent in how they do everything”.
Cawley added that more often than not, Stephen Kenny’s side fell short in the big head-to-head fixtures.
But crucially, looking towards next season, Pat’s may have to plug gaps in the squad with Kian Leavy and Chris Forrester among those linked with moves away for different reasons, while Aidan Keena and Joseph Anang are attracing interest according to reports.
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“They’re going to lose players, so in terms of the squad, you’re looking at that team on paper thinking that’s the makings of a really good team as well if you were to strengthen that,” said Cawley.
“But it looks like they’re going to lose two or three out of that and then you’re having to replace that as well.
“So I think it’s going to be even more difficult because they were very close this year. Pat’s had a great opportunity, especially as Conan said, with no Europe and they’re going to finish third it looks like, so it’s been disappointing.”
Two weeks ago, Cawley had highlighted the two or three areas that Bohemians will need to improve on if they are to also challenge their bitter rivals Shamrock Rovers.
Byrne opined that Bohs’ key men Dawson Devoy and Ross Tierney would be among those looking closely at the off-season business the club make in regard to their own individual longer-term ambitions.
“They’re going to be looking at the hierarchy at Bohs to see who they get in and I think that will tell a tale going forward,” he said.
“I think they’re very happy at Bohs at the moment, there’s no doubt about it, but I’m saying in their future careers not having a medal in their back pocket like we talked about earlier on, it is important.
“But defensively definitely (they need to strengthen) and I do think in the attacking areas, they do score goals, but they could score a lot more in terms of having that prolific striker who will just score, score, score and I don’t think they have it.”
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