works-team—Midland Athletic of the Midland Great Western Railway—had competed for two seasons but had resigned when the company went through a merger. By 1944–45, Dundalk were the only club with works-team roots remaining. Another works-team, Transport (sponsored by CIÉ), joined in 1948–49, but they failed to be re-elected for 1962–63, leaving Dundalk again as the only surviving club with works-team roots. The works themselves became Dundalk Engineering Works Ltd with the demise of the G.N.R.(I) company in 1958. First successes (1930–1949) With a new manager, Steve Wright, "doing everything except selling the programmes", Dundalk finished as runners-up in both the League and the FAI Cup in 1930–31. Proof that they could compete at a national level gave the management committee confidence to press ahead, and the club was converted to a membership-based limited company, 'Dundalk A.F.C. Limited', on 25 January 1932. In the 1932–33 season, they became the first team from outside Dublin to win a league title, sealing it in Dalymount Park with their first victory over Bohemians. The title win also meant that they had become the first team from outside Dublin or Belfast to win a league title in Ireland since the inception of the original Irish League in 1890. Hoping to improve gate receipts and revenue, the club's management committee decided to move from the Athletic Grounds to a ground of their own. In 1936, they secured land on the Carrick Road owned by P.J. Casey (a former committee member), and named it 'Oriel Park'. After winning the league title, they were runners-up eight times across the five main competitions (League, Shield, FAI Cup, Dublin City Cup and Leinster Senior Cup), before winning the 1937–38 City Cup—their first cup final victory. They won their first FAI Cup—in their fourth appearance in the final—with victory over Cork United in Dalymount Park in 1942. Five weeks later, they won the inaugural Dublin and Belfast Inter-City Cup to become (unofficially) 'Champions of All Ireland'. The following September, in the new season, the City Cup was won for a second time. During the mid-1940s, the management committee relied on player sales to English clubs to bankroll the club, as gate receipts alone did not meet its running costs. After missing out in both the League and the City Cup by a point in 1947–48, the committee decided to invest the surplus from its transfer dealings on a player-coach, Ned Weir,