LONDON SFC
2003
Class
shows through at last for Champions.
By
John Collins
St
Brendans 3-19
Jersey
Irish 0-4
For
those among us, and I will have to confess to
being one of them, who doubted the Brendans
desire and ability to retain their
Championship crown in 2003, we were given the
perfect response by Tommy McDermott’s side
in a blistering opening fifteen minutes that
saw his team blast their way into a 1-10 to no
score lead over a bemused and shell-shocked
Jersey Irish team.
Now
the score line will reflect poorly on the
islanders and indeed for those that were not
at the game it would appear that the Jersey
boys were grossly inadequate, which indeed
they were at times, but the truth of the
matter is that no team in London, not the
Parnells, not the Kingdom, not the Tara, could
have lived with the champions in the mood they
started this match in.
The
doubts and questions that surround the team
and its ability have of course filtered their
way back to the Brendans training ground in
Osterley. The only way for any football team
to answer critics is to do so on the playing
field. This was done in no uncertain terms on
Sunday and Jersey were left as the sitting
ducks in the line of what could only be
described as very aggressive and unfriendly
fire.
Wing
forwards Paddy Bowles and Martin Gill did the
lion’s share of the scoring for the Brendans
early on, but the first real moment of magic
came on the quarter hour when skipper Shane
Manley burst through onto a crossfield ball
and blasted the ball past Des Corbett in the
Jersey goal. That score was pretty much game
set and match for the Brendans and what
followed after was the sort of clinical
display of scoring and ruthless efficiency
that I haven’t seen in London since I myself
was on the receiving end of it during the
halcyon days of PJ McGinley’s Tir Chonnail
Gaels teams in the early 1990’s.
Whether
this current Brendans side is yet good enough
to warrant comparison to those sides would
still be a point that would raise much debate
and argument amongst the watchers of the game
in London, given the poor display this team
produced just two weeks ago against most
people’s other fancy for the crown this
year, the Parnells.
Jersey
will return to their island both gutted and
embarrassed by the scoreline and their own
performance. In fairness to them, in general
they are by no means twenty-four points the
worse team to the Brendans, but on this
particular day they were and that is what the
record books will forever state. It took them
fully forty-three minutes to get their first
score in the game, this despite a modest
number of relatively easy chances early in the
game. Their first three scores were all from
the boot of substitute free taker Ray Grant
and it wasn’t until ten minutes from time
that Jimmy McCormack managed to get their
first score from play. A fair reflection on a
very inept performance.
The
Brendans now face into their game with Neasden
in a very strong position. Confidence will be
sky high, the adrenalin is very evidently
pumping through both the team and the back
room set-up and the focus is very much fixed
on retaining their crown.
In
their way is the modest challenge of Neasden
Gaels, which in golfing parlance is a
“gimme” for the Brendans. Overall they
have too much pace, too much class, too much
experience and too many options for the
Neasden men to be able to contend with.
Players
like Sean Murphy and Sean O’Murchu are
playing with great effectiveness without ever
having to get out of second gear. Stand in
midfielder Kevin Kelly was simply awesome in
the absence of Colin McCaul and up front Shane
Manley burst into life for the first time
since his energy sapping display against
Crossmolina last December. The signs are
looking ominous for the smaller fry left in
the Brendans wake and certainly the bigger
fish in this particular championship pond
would also need to be watching their backs as
the Brendans begin to set their sights on
silverware.
Scorers
:
St
Brendans: P Bowles 1-5, S Manley 2-1, M
Gill 0-5 (0-3f), D O’Connor, E Reilly, J
Carmody (0-2each), S O’Murchu, B Solen (0-1
each).
Jersey
Irish: R Grant 0-3 (all frees), J
McCormack 0-1.
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