Fulham fight back for title
Fulham fight back for title
October 24, 2017
CityJet Senior Football Championship Final
Fulham Irish 0-15
Tír Chonaill Gaels 1-11
On the 22nd of October the CityJet Senior Football Championship was hotly contested by two teams who have been the best two Football teams in London this year. Fulham were back in the final for the first time since 2014. It was in fact TCG who beat them on that occasion. Fulham were hoping to land their first title since 2011. TCG have contested each final since 2012 winning 3 and losing 2 their last win coming in 2015. Needless to say there was never going to be much between the teams and so it proved throughout the 60 mins. TCG began the match the better which is surprising taking into account the strong wind with which they played into in the first half. It took them just 3 mins to open their account through the boot of their captain Liam Gavaghan. Fulham replied two mins later with a point of their own. After 8 mins the score stood at 2 points apiece and then came the biggest score of the first half as TCG goaled through an opportunistic finish from Joe Roberts who came in as a replacement for Ryan Elliott who missed the match due to being away on holidays. In fairness to Fulham they never faltered under such pressure and driven from midfield by their no.8 Michael Murphy managed to drag themselves back into the game by kicking 3 unanswered points to bring the game level for the third time with 14 mins played. Fulham then kicked a fourth unanswered point this point putting them into the lead for the first time in this contest. This was a lead they were to hold for no more than a minute as TCG replied with their first score in 10 mins followed by another to put them back in the driving seat. Fulham Irish mustered up another score to leave the teams level for the fourth time with the score reading 1-4 to 0-7. However, TCG were to have the last word and kicked a point 3 mins into first half injury time to give them a deserving half time lead after a workmanlike performance to dig in against a strong wind. Now playing with the wind at their backs TCG stretched their lead out to 2 on the resumption of the half only for another Fulham fightback which saw them pull level with 12 mins of the half played. TCG must have thought it was their day as they kicked 3 points in as many minutes to stretch themselves into a comfortable 3-point lead, a lead they held right up to the last ten minutes. Then there was a series of unfortunate events. TCG corner forward Killian Butler missed a guilt edged goal chance that would have put 6 points between the teams and surely end the game as a contest. However, it wasn’t to be and only moments later TCG found themselves reduced to 14 men as Kevin Rafferty was shown a second yellow for high tackle on Owen Mulligan. His first yellow coming in the same circumstances on the same opponent in the first half. Fulham now held all the aces and although they were playing into the breeze they set about efficiently dismantling the TCG lead. With eight minutes to play they kicked the first point of their comeback. This was cancelled out by an Adrian Hanlon score for TCG however it was to be TCG’s last contribution to the scoreboard with still 6 mins of normal time to play and the score reading 1-11 to 12 points. Fulham kicked three unanswered points one of these scores coming from the boot of no.12 Liam Staunton who showed great bottle to find the target from a free out on the side-line. In this time TCG continued to shoot themselves in the foot missing a gimme free from 20 yards just right of the posts. The game came right down to the wire as with the final kick of the game Mark Gottsche had an opportunity from 45 yards in front of the posts to level the scores but it was not to be as his effort dropped wide. Upon the full-time whistle there was jubilant scenes from the Fulham Irish contingent as they ended a 6 year wait for the Senior Football Title. TCG have their captain Liam Gavaghan who scored 3 points and Killian Butler who scored 4 points to thank for keeping them ahead over the 60 mins but ultimately wasn’t to be enough. On the opposite side again, Owen Mulligan was inspirational pulling the strings and contributing 4 points as did Liam Staunton. Michael Murphy in midfield was the platform for Fulham Irish’s win as he did the captains role and was a thorn in TCG’s side at midfield all day as he dominated kick out after kick out. Fulham Irish now go on to contest the All-Ireland Quarter-Final where they will face the Connacht Champions that game taking place on the 9/10th of December.