Dermot Keely

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Dermot Keely
Personal information
Date of birth	March 8 1954[1]
Place of birth	Ireland
Playing position	Manager
Club information
Current club	Shelbourne
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1974-1975 1975-1978 1978-1981 1981-1983 1983 1983-1987	Home Farm St. Patrick's Athletic Dundalk Glentoran UCD Shamrock Rovers
Teams managed
1983 1986-1988 1989-1992 1992-1993 1993-1996 1996 1996 1996-1998 1998-2002 2002-2003 2003-2003 2005-2006 2007-present	UCD Shamrock Rovers Sligo Rovers Longford Town Dundalk Finn Harps Athlone Town Home Farm Everton Shelbourne Kildare County Derry City Dublin City Shelbourne
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Dermot Keely, (born March 8, 1954 in Dublin) is the current manager of Irish football team Shelbourne FC.

Contents 1 Family 2 Career 2.1 Player 2.2 Player-manager 2.3 Manager 3 Honours 3.1 As a player 3.2 As a manager 4 References 5 Sources

[edit] Family

Keely's family have played League of Ireland football at various levels. His late father Peter Keely played for Shelbourne, his brother Joe played on the same Home Farm F.C. FAI Cup winning side of 1975 as Dermot Keely himself. And his son Alan Keely currently plays for Shelbourne.^[2]

[edit] Career

[edit] Player

As a player Keely started with Home Farm F.C. and after a spell at St. Patrick's Athletic moved to Dundalk F.C. where he made his debut against Shamrock Rovers in September 1978. In his first season the Co. Louth outfit won the domestic double. In 1981 Keely captained Dundalk to win the FAI Cup. The League Cup was also won this season.

Keely then signed for Glentoran F.C. in the Irish League where in his two seasons there he won the Irish Cup, a Gold Cup and an Ulster Cup.

Keely's time with Dundalk and Glentoran saw him play in notable European Cup ties. In 1979, Dundalk reached the second round of the European Cup and were drawn with Celtic. The first leg saw Dundalk produce a notable display to come away with a 3-2 defeat at Parkhead. In the return leg in front of a packed Oriel Park, Dundalk missed a last-minute opportunity to win the tie on away goals and the game finished 0-0. This is regarded as one of the best performances by a League of Ireland club in European competition.

Two years later, Keely played his part in Glentoran's run to the second round of the European Cup. In the first leg against CSKA Sofia, they lost 2-0. However, the return leg saw Glentoran take a 2-0 lead, forcing the game into extra time. With only five minutes remaining, CSKA scored the goal they needed. The tie finished 3-2 on aggregate, which had been the closest Glentoran came to reaching the last eight of European competition since 1974 [1].

[edit] Player-manager

Keely's first managerial job was as UCD player-manager.^[1] However after just two months at Belfield Jim McLaughlin persuaded Keely to sign for Shamrock Rovers. He made his debut against Athlone Town in November 1983. He scored his first goal for Rovers in a 3-2 defeat to Shelbourne at Harold's Cross on the 11th of December 1983. When McLaughlin left at the end of the 1985/86 season to manage his home club Derry City Dermot was appointed player-manager on the 16th of May.

In the 1986/87 season, Rovers controversially announced the sale of Glenmalure Park near the end of season. However, Rovers won another double in this their final season at Milltown to bring Keely's Rovers haul to 4 League championships and 3 FAI Cups.

The 1987/88 season started with Rovers controversially playing at Tolka Park. Rovers fans boycotted the ground en masse. Every game was picketed and with the crowds practically gone the team invariably suffered. Keely was quoted years later as saying:

“	I didn't realise the depth of feeling about Glenmalure Park and all I wanted to do was win the League for Shamrock Rovers.	”
—D Keely , The Hoops (ISBN 0-7171-2121-6)

He resigned after the last game of the season on the 8th of April 1988. During his time at Rovers he won one Inter-League cap and represented the club 6 times in European competition.

[edit] Manager

He then took over as manager of Sligo Rovers in 1989 and achieved promotion in his first season. He guided Sligo Rovers to their highest Premier Division place in a decade in the 1990/91 season by finishing 5th.

After a brief spell at Longford Town he took over at Dundalk where he won the League Championship in 1995. He then guided Finn Harps to promotion to the Premier Division in 1996. After managing Athlone Town he took over the reins at Home Farm Everton where he won the League of Ireland First Division Shield in 1998.

In the calendar year 1996 Keely managed four clubs: Dundalk, Finn Harps, Athlone Town and Home Farm.

He took over as manager of Shelbourne in July 1998 ^[3] and won two championships (1999-2000 and 2001-02) and one FAI Cup (2000) in his time at Tolka Park. He also guided Shels to victory over Macedonian side Sloga Jugomagnat in the first round of 2000-01 Champions League qualifiers. Shels 1-0 win in the first leg in Skopje was the first away win for a League of Ireland side in any UEFA competitions for eighteen years.

Keely then became the first manager of new league club Kildare County in 2002. After a credible 5th place finish he then walked out to manage Derry City lasting only 3 months^[4]

After a spell out of the game he then took over at Dublin City.^[5] He then took over the management position at Shelbourne FC in 2007 and in his first season back finished fifth in the first division. In his second season in charge, Shelbourne lead the division going into the final game, and needed a home win against mid-table Limerick to gain promotion, but were denied by a 92nd-minute equaliser, and so were overhauled by Dundalk, who won away to Kildare County.

Dermot Keely has also been working as a maths teacher in De La Salle College Churchtown for over 20 years and has a weekly column in the Irish Sun.

[edit] Honours

[edit] As a player

• League of Ireland Championship: 6
  • Dundalk F.C. 1978/79, 1977/78
  • Shamrock Rovers 1983/84, 1984/85, 1985/86, 1986/87
• FAI Cup: 5
  • Home Farm F.C. 1975
  • Dundalk F.C. 1979, 1981
  • Shamrock Rovers 1985, 1986
• FAI League Cup
  • Dundalk F.C. 1980/81
• Irish Cup
  • Glentoran F.C. 1983
• Gold Cup
  • Glentoran F.C. 1982/83
• Ulster Cup
  • Glentoran F.C. 1982/83
• PFAI Player of the Year:
  • Shamrock Rovers - 1983/84
• SWAI Personality of the Year
  • Shamrock Rovers - 1984/85
  • Player of the Year:
  • Shamrock Rovers - 1984/85

[edit] As a manager

• League of Ireland Championship: 4
  • Shamrock Rovers F.C. 1986/87
  • Dundalk F.C. 1994/95
  • Shelbourne F.C. 1999/2000, 2001/02

• FAI Cup: 2
  • Shamrock Rovers F.C. 1987
  • Shelbourne F.C. 2000

• League of Ireland First Division Shield
  • Home Farm Everton 1998

• SWAI Personality of the Year
  • Shelbourne F.C. - 2000

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

• The Hoops by Paul Doolan and Robert Goggins (ISBN 0-7171-2121-6)

v • d • e Shelbourne F.C. – current squad MF Baker · DF Brennan · MF Cassidy · DF Crawley · GK Delaney · DF Doherty · MF Doyle · DF Farrell · FW Flood · DF Hedderman · FW Hynes · DF Keely · MF McAllister · MF McGill · DF McMillan · FW Murray · MF O'Brien · DF Quigley · GK Whelan · Manager: Keely

Preceded by Damien Richardson	Shelbourne manager 1998-2002	Succeeded by Pat Fenlon
Preceded by -	Kildare County Manager 2002-2003	Succeeded by Eric Hannigan
Preceded by Kevin Mahon	Derry City F.C. manager 2003-2003	Succeeded by Gavin Dykes
Preceded by Pat Fenlon	Shelbourne manager 2007-	Succeeded by '