IT WAS the season of the Towell.

Rivals threw it in as Richie Towell and Dundalk set new records.

The Lilywhites finished the season as League and FAI Cup Double winners and they also lifted the Leinster Senior Cup and clinched the season-opening President’s Cup.

But that only told half the story.

They scored a League of Ireland record 78 goals, breaking a mark set in 1923. The Lilywhites also won the league by 11 points and lost just one game all year.

And for those who were convinced that playing on a plastic pitch at Oriel Park was an advantage, that sole defeat came at home.

The Dundalk of late 2012 that manager Stephen Kenny inherited is unrecognisable to the one he now presides over.

Kenny said: “It’s great for the club, great history. It was on its knees after seven years in the First Division. Had they been relegated in the play-off, nobody would have really shed any tears.

“The club are back-to-back champions, back in the Champions League qualifiers and it’s great.”

Towell was undoubtedly the Player of the Year, scoring 29 goals in all competitions, including the winner in the FAI Cup final.

His 25 in the league was the most ever by a midfielder and only the great Dan McCaffrey and Brendan Bradley have scored more.

The only person connected with Dundalk upset by his goal return was assistant manager Vinny Perth, who owed him a weekend away in Powerscourt Hotel for his efforts.

A departure was inevitable and Towell has moved to Brighton and is aiming to break into the Ireland squad ahead of Euro 2016.

But Dundalk were far from a one-man team.

Daryl Horgan — who has signed a new deal after exploring options in England — impressed on the wing, while skipper Stephen O’Donnell and the defence were outstanding.

Given their record, it is incredible to remember that there were questions over how Dundalk would cope this season after losing striker Patrick Hoban to Oxford United.

Kenny searched for a similar target man although it was not until July when he landed Ciarán Kilduff from St Pat’s that he signed one.

But by then, his team had evolved anyway with the pace of David McMillan in attack giving Dundalk a new option that stretched teams.

They started the season with five straight wins and looked impossible to catch as any test put in front of them was overcome.

It was not until the end of April that they fell behind in a game — and that was turned around within 15 minutes.

When they first conceded a goal at home, it was a penalty in a game they ended up winning 8-1.

When they finally conceded a goal from open play at home, it was an own goal.

Bohemians did defeat them at Oriel Park but that was a rarity as, even when teams made life difficult, Dundalk found a way scoring late winners against rivals Drogheda United and Derry City.

Only in Europe did the Lilywhites falter.

They lost 2-1 away to BATE Borisov in Belarus on an evening when they were the better side and could not finish the job at home as BATE hung on for a 0-0 draw.

The fact that BATE reached the group stages of the Champions League and beat Italian giants Roma was of no consolation.

But even the Euro disappointment did not stop them in the league.

Their blip — if you can call it that — followed that as they drew three of their next four in all competitions and exited the EA Sports Cup on penalties against Galway United.

And as second-placed Cork City suffered their own problems in August and September, losing to Limerick and Shamrock Rovers and then drawing with Bray and Derry, the game was up.

Dundalk travelled to Tallaght with four games remaining knowing a win would secure the title, while a draw would be enough if Cork did not beat Drogheda.

A late Towell penalty secured the point and then they had five minutes of waiting on the pitch in Tallaght for confirmation that City had dropped points.

The Lilywhites celebrated and continued to do so for the rest of the season, going on to win the FAI Cup at the Aviva Stadium thanks to Towell’s winner.

That the goal came in extra-time epitomised what they were about.

Ireland assistant boss Roy Keane claimed Dundalk were the fittest League of Ireland side he had ever seen and they kept proving it.

Even when the season ended, manager Kenny argued they could have kept going.

He said: “We played a lot of games this season in different competitions and the season is ending a bit too soon. We feel that we could go on for another ten games.

“It was our last training session and people were disappointed, that it was our last training session. A lot of teams at the end of the season feel, ‘We’ll take a rest’ but this group were disappointed, they wanted to train more.”

Down at the bottom, Drogheda’s point against Cork proved to matter little as well as they failed to earn another result all season and were relegated on the last day after losing to Shamrock Rovers.

That they found themselves going down automatically was a surprise given that Limerick looked dead and buried by the start of August having picked up just six points in the opening 21 matches.

But a late run that saw them get an incredible 23 points from their final 12 games earned them a shot at the play-off.

Yet, having got a second chance at survival, they failed to take it as Letterkenny Leaving Cert student BJ Banda scored an extra-time winner for Finn Harps to win promotion at Limerick’s expense.