Athlone Town

Athlone Town go into this season in the League of Ireland having spent recent years working back from a low point: in 2017 the club was caught up in a match-fixing scandal that emptied the terraces and forced a change of ownership. Rebuilding since then has meant asking supporters to trust the club again as much as watching results.

Founded in 1887, Athlone Town is the oldest club in the League of Ireland. The club joined the Free State League in 1922 as Dublin's first entrant, dropped out of the top flight in 1928, and did not find its way back into senior football until 1964, returning to the top division in 1969.

The men's team's one FAI Cup came in 1923–24, won 1–0 against Fordsons without conceding a goal all tournament. The captain that year, Dinny Hannon, scored the only goal in the final and was picked for the Irish Free State squad at the Paris Olympics months later. The women's side has since matched that achievement and gone further: Athlone Town Ladies won the Women's FAI Cup in 2023, beating Shelbourne 2–2 on the night and 4–3 on penalties, having lost the final to the same opponents the year before and again in 2024.

Home games are played at Athlone Town Stadium in Lissywollen, the club's ground since 2007, known locally as Lissywollen. The stripes have mattered more than the ground itself lately: Athlone plays in blue and black, its colours since the club's founding, and a recent switch to an all-black home kit drew enough complaints from supporters that the case for reverting to the traditional stripes has stuck around.

Dennis Clarke holds the club appearance record, with 361 games worn across spells either side of the sides that won Athlone's League of Ireland titles in the early 1980s.