2025 League of Ireland First Division

League of Ireland First Division

Season	2025
Dates	14 February 2025 – 17 October 2025
Champions	Dundalk (3rd title)
Promoted	Dundalk
Matches	179
Goals	502 (2.8 per match)
Top goalscorer	Barry Coffey (26 goals)
Biggest home win	Cobh Ramblers 5–0 Longford Town (7 March 2025) Finn Harps 5–0 Bray Wanderers (21 March 2025) Dundalk 6–1 Athlone Town (8 August 2025)
Biggest away win	Treaty United 0–7 Dundalk (22 August 2025)
Highest scoring	Wexford 4–3 Kerry (27 June 2025) Dundalk 6–1 Athlone Town (8 August 2025) Treaty United 0–7 Dundalk (22 August 2025) Finn Harps 3–4 UCD (17 October 2025)
Longest winning run	7 matches Bray Wanderers
Longest unbeaten run	19 matches Dundalk
Longest winless run	22 matches Athlone Town
Longest losing run	7 matches Athlone Town
Highest attendance	3,358 Dundalk 3–0 Finn Harps (10 October 2025)
Lowest attendance	154 Athlone Town 0–0 Kerry (22 September 2025)
Total attendance	143,843
Average attendance	836
← 2024 2026 → All statistics correct as of 17 October 2025.

The 2025 League of Ireland First Division, known as the SSE Airtricity Men's First Division for sponsorship reasons, ^[1] is the 41st season of the League of Ireland First Division. The competition began on 14 February 2025, ^[2] and will conclude on 17 October 2025. ^[3]

On 10 October, Dundalk won the title after a 3–0 win against Finn Harps. ^{[4] [5]}

Teams

Athlone Town

Bray Wanderers

Dundalk

Cobh Ramblers

Finn Harps

Treaty United

UCD

Wexford

Longford Town

Kerry

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Locations of the 2025 First Division teams

Team changes

The team relegated to the First Division was Dundalk, the bottom-placed team of the 2024 League of Ireland Premier Division. They replaced the one team promoted from the 2024 League of Ireland First Division, champions Cork City.

Stadia and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Athlone Town	Athlone	Athlone Town Stadium	5,000
Bray Wanderers	Bray	Carlisle Grounds	4,000
Cobh Ramblers	Cobh	St. Colman's Park	3,000
Dundalk	Dundalk	Oriel Park	4,500
Finn Harps	Ballybofey	Finn Park	6,000
Kerry	Tralee	Mounthawk Park	1,200
Longford Town	Longford	Bishopsgate	5,097
Treaty United	Limerick	Markets Field	5,000
UCD	Dublin	UCD Bowl	3,000
Wexford	Crossabeg	Ferrycarrig Park	2,500

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Athlone Town	Ian Ryan	Oisín Duffy	Nike	Valeo Futbol
Bray Wanderers	Paul Heffernan	Kilian Cantwell	Capelli Sport	OutdoorLiving.ie
Cobh Ramblers	Richie Holland (interim)	Shane Griffin	Uhlsport	McCarthy Insurance Group
Dundalk	Ciarán Kilduff	Daryl Horgan	Playr-Fit	ZOMA
Finn Harps	Kevin McHugh	Tony McNamee	Joma	So-Lo Stores
Kerry	Colin Healy	Sean McGrath	Macron	Kerry Airport
Longford Town	Wayne Groves	Dean O'Shea	Macron	Bishopsgate
Treaty United	Tommy Barrett	Mark Walsh	O'Neills	Trade Electric Group
UCD	William O’Connor	Ronan Finn	O'Neills	Maples Group
Wexford	Stephen Elliott	Aaron Dobbs	Macron	Campion Insurance

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Dundalk	Jon Daly [6]	Resigned	2 November 2024	Pre-season	Ciarán Kilduff [7]	6 November 2024
Wexford	James Keddy [8]		6 November 2024		Stephen Elliott [9]	26 November 2024
Cobh Ramblers	Gary Hunt [10]	Sacked	15 November 2024		Mick McDermott [11]	4 December 2024
Finn Harps	Darren Murphy [12] [13]	Signed by Loughgall	25 March 2025	8th	Kevin McHugh [14]	2 April 2025
Athlone Town	Dario Castelo [15]	Mutual consent	12 April 2025	10th	Ian Ryan [16]	8 June 2025
Kerry	Conor McCarthy [17]		5 May 2025	9th	Colin Healy [17]	5 May 2025
Cobh Ramblers	Mick McDermott [18]	Sacked	17 October 2025	2nd	Richie Holland (interim) [19]	17 October 2025

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or qualification
1	Dundalk (C, P)	36	23	10	3	74	31	+43	79	Promotion to 2026 League of Ireland Premier Division
2	Cobh Ramblers	36	21	6	9	70	38	+32	69	Qualification for First Division play-offs
3	Bray Wanderers	36	20	2	14	63	53	+10	62
4	UCD	36	17	8	11	50	40	+10	59
5	Treaty United	36	13	9	14	51	48	+3	48
6	Longford Town	36	12	9	15	43	59	−16	45
7	Wexford	36	12	8	16	42	51	−9	44
8	Finn Harps	35	8	12	15	42	55	−13	36
9	Kerry	35	8	9	18	38	58	−20	33
10	Athlone Town	36	3	11	22	29	69	−40	20

Source: SSE Airtricity League of Ireland First Division
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted

Results

Teams play each other four times (twice at home and twice away).

Home \ Away	ATH	BRW	COB	DUN	FIN	KER	LON	TRU	UCD	WEX
Athlone Town	—	0–1	2–3	0–0	0–1	2–2	1–1	0–5	2–1	1–1
—	0–4	0–3	1–1	0–0	0–0	1–2	2–2	1–2	1–2
Bray Wanderers	1–3	—	2–1	1–3	3–1	4–2	4–0	2–1	2–0	1–2
3–1	—	0–2	2–0	3–2	5–1	0–2	3–2	1–3	1–0
Cobh Ramblers	2–0	2–1	—	1–2	3–1	0–0	5–0	2–1	1–0	1–3
2–1	3–1	—	1–2	4–1	1–0	3–1	3–0	2–2	4–0
Dundalk	1–0	2–2	1–0	—	1–1	2–0	2–1	2–2	1–1	3–0
6–1	3–1	1–0	—	3–0	3–3	4–1	1–1	3–2	3–2
Finn Harps	0–2	5–0	1–2	0–1	—	4–2	1–1	0–2	1–2	1–1
2–1	2–2	2–2	1–0	—	1–1	0–0	1–0	3–4	1–3
Kerry	3–0	0–1	0–2	0–1	2–0 [a]	—	2–0	1–0	0–1	1–1
4–0	2–1	1–1	0–4	0–1	—	1–0	1–1	0–3	0–2
Longford Town	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–3	0–0	3–2	—	2–0	0–1	2–1
3–2	1–2	3–1	3–2	1–1	3–1	—	2–0	0–2	2–2
Treaty United	1–0	2–1	2–3	1–1	3–1	3–0	5–1	—	4–0	0–1
3–2	2–1	2–1	0–7	0–1	1–1	1–2	—	1–0	0–0
UCD	2–0	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–0	—	3–0 [b]
2–2	3–2	0–3	0–1	3–1	2–1	2–1	1–1	—	1–0
Wexford	0–1	2–0	0–2	2–3	2–2	1–2	3–1	2–0	0–1	—
0–0	0–1	3–2	0–0	2–1	4–3	0–1	0–2	0–3	—

Source: SSE Airtricity League of Ireland First Division
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Notes:

1. Result voided after both teams fielded ineligible players.
2. Awarded.

Positions by round

To preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included to the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards. For example, if a match is scheduled for round 7, but then played between rounds 8 and 9, it will be added to the standings for round 8.

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36
Dundalk	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Cobh Ramblers	2	2	3	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Bray Wanderers	3	5	6	4	6	7	4	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
UCD	1	4	4	5	7	5	3	5	5	7	7	6	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Treaty United	7	3	2	3	3	3	5	4	6	5	6	5	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Longford Town	9	8	7	10	10	10	10	8	8	8	8	9	8	10	8	8	9	9	8	8	9	8	7	7	7	9	8	9	9	9	8	8	7	7	7	6
Wexford	10	9	5	7	5	6	8	6	4	4	4	4	5	5	5	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	7
Finn Harps	5	7	10	8	9	8	6	7	7	6	5	7	7	7	9	9	8	8	9	9	7	7	8	8	8	7	7	6	6	6	6	7	8	8	8	8
Kerry	6	6	8	9	8	9	9	10	9	10	10	10	9	8	7	7	7	7	7	7	8	9	9	9	9	8	9	8	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	9
Athlone Town	8	10	9	6	4	4	7	9	10	9	9	8	10	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10

	Promotion to 2026 League of Ireland Premier Division
	Qualification for League of Ireland Premier Division play-off

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

Promotion/relegation play-offs

The ninth-placed team from the 2025 League of Ireland Premier Division will qualify for a play-off alongside the second, third, fourth, and fifth-placed teams from the 2025 League of Ireland First Division (Cobh Ramblers, Bray Wanderers, UCD, and Treaty United).

The First Division teams will contest the First Division semi-finals and final. The semi-finals will be held over two legs, with the second-placed team facing the fifth-placed team and the third-placed team facing the fourth-placed team. The semi-final winners then contest the First Division final, with the winners ultimately facing the ninth-placed League of Ireland Premier Division team for the final place in the 2026 League of Ireland Premier Division.

The promotion/relegation play-offs will take place from 24 October to 7 November 2025. ^[20]

Bracket

	First Division Semi-finals							First Division Final					Promotion/relegation play-off
	5	Treaty United	1
													PD9
	2	Cobh Ramblers	0
	4	UCD	0
	3	Bray Wanderers	1

First Division Semi-finals

Treaty United v Cobh Ramblers

24 October 2025	Treaty United	1–0	Cobh Ramblers	Limerick
19:45	Hanson 77'	Report		Stadium: Markets Field Referee: Oliver Moran

Cobh Ramblers v Treaty United

28 October 2025	Cobh Ramblers	v	Treaty United	Cobh
19:45				Stadium: St. Colman's Park

---

UCD v Bray Wanderers

24 October 2025	UCD	0–1	Bray Wanderers	Dublin
19:45		Report	Doyle 90+4'	Stadium: UCD Bowl Attendance: 927 Referee: Lucas Keating

Bray Wanderers v UCD

28 October 2025	Bray Wanderers	v	UCD	Bray
19:45				Stadium: Carlisle Grounds

First Division Final

v

2 November 2025

v

Promotion/relegation play-off

v

9 November 2025

v

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals [21]
1	Barry Coffey	Cobh Ramblers	26
2	Mikie Rowe	Wexford	21
3	Lee Devitt	Treaty United	14
4	Gbemi Arubi	Dundalk	12
	Aaron Doran	Longford Town
	Billy O'Neill	Bray Wanderers
7	Daryl Horgan	Dundalk	11
8	Adam Brennan	UCD	10
	Dean Ebbe	Dundalk
	Eoin Kenny	Dundalk
	Cian Murphy	Cobh Ramblers
	Max Murphy	Bray Wanderers

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref.
Lee Devitt	Treaty United	Athlone Town	5–0 (A)	21 February 2025	[22]
Sean McGrath	Kerry	Wexford	3–4 (A)	27 June 2025	[23]
Shane Griffin	Cobh Ramblers	Longford Town	3–1 (H)	1 August 2025	[24]
Daryl Horgan	Dundalk	Treaty United	7–0 (A)	22 August 2025	[25]
Mikie Rowe	Wexford	Cobh Ramblers	3–2 (H)	19 September 2025	[26]
Dean Larkin		Finn Harps	3–1 (H)	22 September 2025	[27]
Barry Coffey	Cobh Ramblers		4–1 (H)	26 September 2025	[28]
Billy O'Neill4	Bray Wanderers	Kerry	5–1 (H)	17 October 2025	[29]

Note:⁴ – player scored 4 goals

See also

• 2025 League of Ireland Premier Division
• 2025 League of Ireland Women's Premier Division
• 2025 FAI Cup

References

1. "League of Ireland and SSE Airtricity announce rise in prize money ahead of 2025 season". Irish Mirror . 14 February 2025. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
2. "SLeague journey begins amid beauty of unpredictability". RTÉ Sport . 14 February 2025. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
3. "2025 SSE Airtricity Men's First Division Fixture List". League of Ireland. 6 February 2025. Retrieved 6 February 2025.
4. "Dundalk dispatch Finn Harps to seal promotion to Premier Division". RTE Sport. 10 October 2025. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
5. "Richie Towell: Dundalk delight but readiness for Premier Division return a concern". RTE Sport. 15 October 2025. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
6. "Dundalk to appoint new boss on Wednesday as Jon Daly exits". RTÉ Sport . 5 November 2024. Dundalk will announce a new manager on Wednesday after confirming the resignation of Jon Daly following the conclusion of the season.
7. Wallace, Keith (6 November 2024). "HISTORY MAKER KILDUFF RETURNS TO DUNDALK FC". Dundalk F.C. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
8. "James Keddy departs Wexford FC". Wexford F.C. 6 November 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
9. "Former Irish international Stephen Elliott unveiled as new Wexford FC manager as he looks to replicate Damien Duff's energy". Irish Independent . 26 November 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
10. "Cobh Ramblers FC Announces Departure of Head Coach Gary Hunt - Cobh Ramblers Football Club". Cobh Ramblers . 15 November 2025. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
11. "Michael McDermott Appointed Head Coach of Cobh Ramblers FC". Cobh Ramblers . 4 December 2024. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
12. Lee, Ethan (25 March 2025). "Club Statement: Darren Murphy Departs - Finn Harps FC Official Website". finnharps.ie. Retrieved 31 March 2025.
13. "Loughgall FC appoints Darren Murphy as new Manager". Loughgall . 27 March 2025. Retrieved 6 July 2025.
14. "Club stalwart Kevin McHugh appointed Finn Harps manager". RTÉ . 2 April 2025. Retrieved 2 April 2025.
15. Admin (12 April 2025). "Club Statement: Dário Castelo". Athlone Town AFC. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
16. "Ian Ryan appointed new Athlone Town boss". extratime.com. 9 June 2025. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
17. "Kerry Football Club announces Colin Healy as First Team Manager". kerryfc.com. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
18. Cobh Ramblers [@CobhRamblersFC] (20 October 2025). "Club Statement
    Cobh Ramblers Football Club can confirm that Michael McDermott is no longer First Team Manager. We would like to thank Mick for his service to the club this season and wish him well in the future.
    Richie Holland will take charge of the team on an interim basis for the upcoming playoffs.
    As we enter this important stage of the season, we encourage all supporters to get behind Richie and the squad.
    The support of our community has always been at the heart of the club, and we look forward to continuing that journey together — through the playoffs and into the future.
    At this time, the club will not be making any further comment.
    Cobh Ramblers Football Club 🟣🔵" (Tweet). Retrieved 21 October 2025– via Twitter.
19. "Cobh Ramblers rocked as manager Mick McDermott departs ahead of First Division play-off". RTÉ . 20 October 2025. Retrieved 21 October 2025. Assistant coach Richie Holland, who oversaw last Friday's game in McDermott's absence, will take over on a temporary basis.
20. "The Play-Offs - everything you need to know". League of Ireland . 17 October 2025. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
21. "Top scorers". Extra Time. Retrieved 31 March 2025.
22. Mackey, Éanna (21 February 2025). "WATCH: Five-star Treaty United score resounding win over Athlone Town in First Division". Limerick Leader . Retrieved 9 March 2025.
23. O'Connor, Patrick. "Wexford claim spoils in seven-goal thriller with Kerry". extratime.com. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
24. O’Connell, Dylan; Murphy, Murt (1 August 2025). "Griffin bags hat-trick as Cobh Ramblers defeat Longford Town". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
25. Rogers, James (23 August 2025). "Treaty surrender to Dundalk FC's magnificent seven and hat-trick hero Horgan". Irish Independent . Retrieved 24 August 2025.
26. Devereux, Dave (19 September 2025). "Mikie Rowe hits hat-trick as Wexford beat Cobh Ramblers". RTÉ . Retrieved 20 September 2025.
27. McNully, Chris (22 September 2025). "Dean Larkin's hat-trick of headers keeps Wexford hopes alive". RTÉ . Retrieved 25 September 2025.
28. O'Connell, Dylan (26 September 2025). "Barry Coffey's first half hat-trick sees Cobh Ramblers keep the pressure on Dundalk". Irish Examiner . Retrieved 27 September 2025.
29. Devereux, Dave (17 October 2025). "First Division wrap: Treaty United secure final promotion play-off spot after win at Wexford". RTÉ . Third-placed Bray Wanderers warmed up for the play-offs with a 5-1 victory over Kerry at the Carlisle Grounds on a night in which 17-year-old Billy O'Neill scored four of the Seasiders' quintent of goals before getting sent off.