Champions Again: The story of Shamrock Rovers' fourth title winning season in a row

An indisputable adage in sport is the inability of a league table to lie and Shamrock Rovers are fully deserving of their title with two games to spare.

They’ve been home and hosed earlier during this four-year spell of dominance and this is the year they made up most ground to prevail.

It’s difficult to comprehend that heading into the first international break in late March, the Hoops languished in eight place of a 10-team table.

The unlikely sight of deadly rivals Bohemians leading the table 10 points into the distance added to the peculiarity.

“You end up where you deserve in any league campaign,” insisted Stephen Bradley as the early scrutiny enveloped. “We’ll talk about that in November.”

Prescient comments by a manager, still only 38 and now in a unique club for his four-in-a-row accomplishment.

The only previous team to rack up that record, also Rovers between 1984 and 1987, were led by Jim McLaughlin but player-manager in the final season, whereas Bradley has been a constant.

Here’s how the campaign unfolded over the past eight months.

FEBRUARY

Derry City’s President Cup win over Rovers didn’t yield points but offered hope for the neutral of a genuine title race. What was to come over the first sixth of the season intensified that talk.

Graham Burke’s opener in their opener at Sligo Rovers indicated normality would ensure but a red card for Pico Lopes played into the hosts nicking a stoppage-time equaliser.

Another late leveller and another 1-1 draw came seven days later, this time against a Drogheda United team that belied their part-time status to trouble the kingpins.

MARCH

Building work at Tallaght delayed their first home game but it was a return to forget as Derry City won 2-1. The northerners’