FULHAM Irish and St Kiernan’s renew their intense rivalry in Sunday’s London Senior Football Championship replay at Ruislip.
This year’s decider is a repeat of last year’s final which North Londoners St Kiernan’s won by four points (1-13 to 0-12) just month’s after Fulham had won the delayed (because of Covid) 2020 championship title.
In the first meeting the teams played out a tense, low-scoring draw. Kerry native Kieran McCarthy got three points for St Kiernan’s and Joe Rock netted a late goal but a last-gasp free from former Dungannon Thomas Clarke’s star Matthew Walsh rescued a draw for Fulham.
This season’s final is Fulham’s sixth in-a-row and Tyrone-born duo Mickey Murphy and Marty Hughes have played in all six. Both were regular scorers as Fulham topped their group and went on to beat Round Towers 4-11 to 2-14 at the semi-final stage. St Kiernan’s did likewise in their group and then saw off Tir Chonaill Gaels 2-13 to 3-9 to book their place in the final which finished 1-6 to 0-9 and Fulham midfielder Cormac Hughes admits his side got off the hook in their first meeting.
Originally from Belfast, Hughes is a Bredagh clubman who followed the footsteps of clubmates Owen and Emmet Costello to the west London side – managed by Cavan native Lorcan Mulvey – this summer after moving to the city to work as an accountant with PWC a year ago.
“The first game was very cagey,” said Hughes.
“They have a couple of very tidy forwards and we had a quite defensive set-up so it was tough and we were probably lucky enough to get out with a draw – they missed a couple of chances that they’d probably take on another day so we were happy-enough at the end.”
Holding their opponents to just seven scores on the day was an excellent defensive effort from Fulham. Can they go a step further on Sunday?
“It’ll be 50-50 again,” said Hughes, whose journey to training sessions involves an hour-long trip on the London underground.
“We are evenly-matched teams but we need to up the effort and hopefully we’ll come out on top. We have to be confident, it’ll be a challenge because they set the standard in the first game and we need to match it.”
At the climax of his first season in London football, Hughes says he has been impressed by the standard of the game in the English capital.
“The standard is very high, especially from the semi-finals on,” he said.
“The top four teams are probably at Down senior standard and in our team the quality of the players is very high – we’ve got players like Mattie Walsh who won the Tyrone championship with Dungannon a couple of years ago and Chris Duggan from Newry Bosco who I played against for years at home. So it is very strong at the top end.”
Fulham’s line-up is made up of ex-pats who are living and working in London but many of their opponents feature home-grown Londoners in their line-ups.
“There is a good mix in the team,” said Hughes.
“There’s a big Ulster contingent and then there’s a lot of lads from Cork, Kerry, Cavan and other counties.”
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