to starve the club and sold off senior players who were replaced by junior footballers. On a tour of Japan in 1975, Mick Meagan and Theo Dunne's young side defeated the Japanese national team 3–2 in front of 60,000 spectators at the Olympic Stadium, but that victory was the highlight of a season that saw the team finish bottom of the table and re-apply for admission into the League of Ireland. In 1976, Meagan and Dunne resigned from the club and were replaced by Seán Thomas, the architect of the Six in a Row side, who with limited resources, re-signed Johnny Fullam and Mick Leech, as well as John Conway from Bohemians. Rovers finished the 1976–77 season in eleventh but won the club's only League of Ireland Cup, with Leech's 250th career goal proving the difference against Sligo. In July 1977, Irish international player-manager John Giles returned to Dublin to take up the same role at Rovers. The Kilcoynes implemented a full-time policy and unveiled plans to rebuild Glenmalure Park as a 50,000 all-seater stadium as well as turning the club into a school of excellence for Irish football, capable of challenging for European honours. Giles signed Irish internationals, Ray Treacy, Eamon Dunphy and Paddy Mulligan to complement the youth setup. In his first season in charge, the club won their 21st FAI Cup, defeating Sligo in a controversial final, but despite that success and emphatic victories in European competition against Apoel Nicosia and Fram Reykjavík, Giles' conservative approach based on possession football proved unsuccessful and on 3 February 1983, he resigned. Four in a row In the summer of 1983, Jim McLaughlin replaced Noel Campbell as Rovers' manager, after a successful period at Dundalk. Louis Kilcoyne made money available to McLaughlin who responded by selling and releasing almost the entire squad he had inherited from the Giles era, including fans' favourite, Alan O'Neill, while retaining the services of Liam Buckley, Harry Kenny, Alan Campbell and Peter Eccles. He brought in what was effectively a League of Ireland XI which included Jody Byrne and Noel King from Dundalk, Mick Neville from Drogheda, the trio of Eviston, Brady and O'Brien from Bohemians, and Anto Whelan and Neville Steedman from Manchester United and Thurles Town . On 1 April 1984, the club clinched their first League of Ireland title in 20 years with a 3–1 defeat of Shelbourne and 14 days later