in the close season. O'Donnell steered his new-look side to a third place finish and qualification for the Europa Conference League at the first attempt. Crest and colours Crest history After outgrowing its links with the Great Northern Railway, the football club adopted the then coat of arms of the town of Dundalk (three gold martlets on an azure field) in December 1927 and incorporated the crest on the club's new white playing shirts. This coat of arms had been adopted by the town in 1673 when it was granted a charter under Charles II of England. It appears as the 'Corporation Seal' in a town plan dated 1675. The crest disappeared from the playing shirts in 1930, however, after the urban district council proposed to remove the "three black crows" from the seal of the town. A modified crest was reintroduced to the shirt for the 1952 FAI Cup Final, consisting of three black martlets on a white shield bearing the club name. After a number of minor redesigns in the following years, the white shield became a red shield with white martlets in 1997, and in 2015 this crest was modified to incorporate a gold star, to commemorate Dundalk's tenth League of Ireland title. Kit history Dundalk's colours have been white shirts with black shorts and black or white socks since the start of the 1940–41 season. It is known that the Dundalk G.N.R. club wore blue shirts when it started in 1903. and were reported to be wearing "yellow and black" in 1906, but there is no further evidence of defined club colours in the pre-World War I years. When the club was revived for the 1919–20 season, the colours adopted were black and amber-striped shirts with white shorts. In advance of dropping the 'G.N.R.' moniker and becoming 'Dundalk A.F.C.', the club changed to a strip of white shirts with the coat of arms of the town (the old Dundalk Corporation seal) as its crest, and blue shorts matching the azure shield of the crest. The new colours were first worn on St Stephen's Day 1927 in the opening match of the 1927–28 League of Ireland Shield. This combination was worn until 1939 but came to be seen as unlucky due to the number of cup final defeats Dundalk had during the 1930s. Hoping a change would bring more luck, the club introduced a sky blue and