Dundalk entered the 2020 season as the reigning League Champions and League of Ireland Cup holders from 2019. Having qualified for European football for the seventh season in a row, they were entered in the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League. It was manager Vinny Perth's second season as manager until his dismissal following Dundalk's exit from Europe in the first qualifying round of the Champions League. The 2020 season was Dundalk's 12th consecutive season in the top tier of Irish football, their 85th in all, and their 94th in the League of Ireland.

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Dundalk

2020 season
Vinny Perth, former Dundalk manager, celebrating the 2019 league title success with supporters in Oriel Park.
Manager	Vinny Perth (until 20 August) Filippo Giovagnoli (from 26 August as Interim Head Coach)
Premier Division	3rd
FAI Cup	Winners
League Cup	Cancelled
President's Cup	Cancelled
Leinster Senior Cup	Abandoned
Champions League	First qualifying round
Europa League	Group stage
Top goalscorer	League: Patrick Hoban (10) All: Patrick Hoban & David McMillan (11)
Highest home attendance	3,156 (Vs. Derry City 14 February 2020)
Home colours Away colours
← 2019 2021 →

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After the postponement of the President's Cup due to storm conditions,^[1] the scheduled double-double round-robin 36 round League programme commenced on 14 February 2020 and was due to be completed on 23 October 2020. The season was predicted to be a two-horse race between Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers.^[2] Both sides won their opening three matches before Rovers won their first encounter, 3–2, in Tallaght Stadium. That game was notable for a goal by Dundalk's Jordan Flores, which was subsequently nominated for the FIFA Puskás Award.^[3]

Subsequently, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic saw the cessation of football in line with other European countries ahead of the Round Six match at home to St Patrick's Athletic. The League of Ireland Cup, sponsored by EA Sports, was deferred for the season.^[4] The Leinster Senior Cup was abandoned.^[5] During the stoppage, assistant manager Ruaidhrí Higgins departed his role for a new role under former Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny with the Republic of Ireland national football team.^[6] He was replaced by Alan Reynolds, who had earlier resigned as manager of Waterford.^[7]

The league season resumed on 31 July 2020 with a reduced schedule of 18 matches in total. Matches were played behind closed doors for the remainder of the shortened season as part of the Irish government's response to the pandemic.^[8] In Europe, Dundalk entered the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League as the seeded team in the first qualifying round. They were drawn away to Celje and defeated 3–0 in the single-leg tie, which was played at Szusza Ferenc Stadion, Budapest (Hungary) because of travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic between Slovenia and Ireland.^[9] In the aftermath of that defeat, manager Vinny Perth was sacked by the club.^[10]

On 26 August Filippo Giovagnoli was confirmed as the new manager of Dundalk, with nine league matches remaining.^[11] John Gill and Alan Reynolds left the club the following week.^[12] After being defeated in the Champions League first qualifying round, they drew Andorran champions Inter Club d'Escaldes in the Europa League second qualifying round, and won 1–0.^[13] They were drawn away again in the second round, and defeated Sheriff Tiraspol in Moldova in a penalty shoot-out, following a 1–1 draw.^[14] The victory gave Dundalk a chance to reach the group stage for the first time since 2016. In the play-off round, they faced KÍ of Klaksvík in the Faroe Islands at the Aviva Stadium, and won 3–1.^[15][16] Meanwhile, they continued to struggle in the league and eventually finished third, thus qualifying for the new UEFA Europa Conference League.

Dundalk were seeded fourth for the group stage and were drawn in Group B alongside Arsenal, Rapid Wien, and Molde. In the first match at home to Molde, Dundalk took a first half lead through Sean Murray, before going down 2–1.^[17] Matchday 2 was the first away match, which was against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. It finished 3–0 to the home side.^[18] Matchday 3 away to Rapid in Vienna finished 4–3 to the home side after Dundalk had taken the lead.^[19] They failed to pick up any points from the second set of matches, and finished bottom of the group on 0 points.^[20] They also received a €50,000 fine from Uefa for 'shadow coaching', as interim head coach Filippo Giovagnoli did not hold a Uefa Pro Licence.^[21]

In the FAI Cup, which also had a schedule change as a result of the pandemic, they reached the final after wins over Waterford, Cobh Ramblers, Bohemians, and Athlone Town. The 11–0 semi-final victory over Athlone Town saw Dundalk set a new record for the biggest win in the competition's history, and was also a new club record victory.^[22] They followed that with a 4–2 extra time victory over the holders, Shamrock Rovers, with David McMillan scoring a hat-trick, to win the Cup for the twelfth time.^[23]

First-Team Squad (2020)

Sources:^[24][25] Note: Substitute appearances in brackets

More information No., Name ...

No.	Name	DOB	Pos.	Debut	League		FAI Cup		EA Cup		Europe		Others		Totals
					Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	Gary Rogers	25 September 1981	GK	2015	13	0	5	0	0	0	9	0	0	0	27	0
2	Seán Gannon	11 July 1991	DF	2014	12 (3)	0	2 (2)	0	0	0	7 (2)	0	0	0	28	0
3	Brian Gartland	4 November 1986	DF	2013	7 (1)	1	4	0	0	0	7 (1)	0	0	0	20	1
4	Seán Hoare	15 March 1994	DF	2017	9 (1)	0	2 (2)	2	0	0	8 (1)	1	0	0	23	3
5	Chris Shields	27 December 1990	MF	2012	16 (1)	0	5	1	0	0	9	1	0	0	31	2
6	Jordan Flores	4 October 1995	MF	2019	11 (3)	3	0 (3)	1	0	0	4 (1)	2	0	0	22	6
7	Michael Duffy	28 July 1994	MF	2017	15 (1)	4	5	3	0	0	9 (1)	0	0	0	31	7
8	John Mountney	22 February 1993	MF	2012	4 (7)	0	1 (4)	1	0	0	2 (6)	0	0	0	24	1
9	Patrick Hoban	28 July 1991	FW	2013	13 (2)	10	1	0	0	0	6 (1)	1	0	0	23	11
10	Greg Sloggett	3 July 1996	MF	2020	10 (4)	2	4	0	0	0	7 (1)	0	0	0	26	2
11	Patrick McEleney	26 September 1992	MF	2016	4 (5)	0	2 (2)	1	0	0	4 (4)	0	0	0	21	1
12	Andrew Quinn[lower-alpha 1]	12 November 1996	FW	2018	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
14	Dane Massey	17 April 1988	DF	2013	7 (1)	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	2
15	Darragh Leahy	15 April 1998	DF	2020	5 (3)	0	2 (1)	0	0	0	7 (1)	0	0	0	19	0
16	Seán Murray	11 October 1993	MF	2019	5 (3)	1	1 (1)	1	0	0	5 (3)	3	0	0	18	5
17	Nathan Oduwa[lower-alpha 2]	5 March 1996	FW	2020	4 (6)	0	0 (2)	1	0	0	1 (3)	0	0	0	16	1
18	Will Patching	18 October 1998	MF	2020	2 (5)	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	0
20	Aaron McCarey	14 January 1992	GK	2019	5	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	6	0
21	Daniel Cleary	9 March 1996	DF	2018	12	1	3	0	0	0	7 (1)	1	0	0	23	2
22	Stefan Čolović	16 April 1994	MF	2020	8 (6)	1	3	0	0	0	4 (4)	0	0	0	25	1
23	Cammy Smith[lower-alpha 3]	24 August 1995	FW	2020	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
23	Cameron Dummigan[lower-alpha 4]	2 June 1996	DF	2019	5 (2)	0	3	0	0	0	3 (2)	0	0	0	15	0
24	Jamie Wynne[lower-alpha 5]	30 July 2001	FW	2020	0	0	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0	0	1	0
27	Daniel Kelly	21 May 1996	MF	2019	9 (4)	0	0 (4)	0	0	0	1 (4)	1	0	0	22	1
29	David McMillan[lower-alpha 6]	14 December 1988	FW	2015	5 (6)	0	4 (1)	8	0	0	4 (4)	3	0	0	24	11
30	Jimmy Corcoran	1 February 2002	GK	2020	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
44	Andy Boyle	7 March 1991	DF	2013	11 (1)	1	3	1	0	0	6 (1)	0	0	0	22	2
45	Josh Gatt[lower-alpha 7]	29 August 1991	MF	2020	1 (1)	0	0 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0

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More information No., Name ...

No.	Name	DOB	Pos.	Debut	League		FAI Cup		EA Cup		Europe		Others		Totals
					Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
12	Georgie Kelly[lower-alpha 8]	12 November 1996	FW	2018	0 (2)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
28	Lido Lotefa[lower-alpha 9]	18 April 2000	FW	2019	0 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
25	Taner Dogan[lower-alpha 10]	30 May 1998	DF	2020	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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