History was created in Pairc Na hEireinn, Birmingham on Sunday, when Fulham Irish, in their first year of existence, won the Championship of Britain in a pulsating match with Oisin's, Manchester. Fulham Irish 1-11 Oisin's 0-11 The match began with both teams showing signs of nerves but the teams quickly settled down and produced an exhibition of football that brought great excitement to the large crowd who turned up to support both teams. Fulham Irish opened the scoring in the 2nd minute with a Paddy Folan free following a foul on Shane O'Dwyer. Oisin's opened their account with a Conor Teague point in the 4th minute. The game ebbed and flowed until the 11th minute when Oisin's star player, Lorcan McGonagle opened his account with a well taken point which was quickly followed by Paddy Folan's second point following fluid Fulham play. In the 20th minute, a dazzling run by Noel Nicholson, where he ran past four defenders and crashed the ball to net, was harshly ruled out by the referee for over carrying. Another move by Fulham Irish in the 25th minute, found Tiernan O'Rourke and O'Dwyer unmarked inside the Oisins' defence and with only the goalkeeper to beat, O'Rourke fouled the ball by bouncing it twice before smashing it to the net. Fulham recovered from this and added points from Nicholson and an inspirational effort from midfielder Mark McElroy. The inspiration however only succeeded in driving on Oisin's who posted three unanswered points from Barry Donnelly, Nicholas Rafferty and Karol McNamee to leave them leading at half time 0-06 to 0-04. The Fulham Irish team found themselves in the unusual position of being 2 points down at half time. If ever the team spirit and quality open play that Fulham Irish are so capable of was required, then now was the time. Many wondered if this team could fight back from this position. However, the fight back was swift and ruthless. The ball was in the back of the Oisin's net before many had taken their positions to watch the second half. O'Rourke was played in on goal by Folan and there was no mistake this time as he expertly finished to the net. Fulham won the kick out and another neat lay off by Folan to Dave Connolly allowed the centre forward to drive over, what now has become customary, from 35 yards to give the London boys a lift. On 37 minutes, McGonagle scored another fine point for the Manchester men. It was at this point that Fulham Irish took a real grip on the game and from the 39th to 49th minute scored five unanswered points, three from Nicholson, two from O'Rourke. At this stage Fulham were looking strong but this spirited Oisin's outfit were in no mood to give in and started to fight back. The last ten minutes saw points from Rafferty, Teague and 2 from McGonagle to the one from O'Rourke for Fulham Irish. The victory for Fulham Irish is testament to the team spirit and organisation instilled into the team. This will stand them in good stead when they take on the Connacht Junior Club Champions later in the competition. As for Oisin's, they are a very good team and if this group of players stick together, it would surprise no one if they return to win this competition in 2007. Other than those mentioned, Ken McGrath, Pearse Ryan, Eoin Davis and Colin Smyth had solid games for Fulham Irish while Donal Breslin and David Hackett also shone for Oisin's. Fulham Irish - Kevin Winters, Eoin Davis, Pearse Ryan, Ken McGrath, Sean McKenna, Michael Farry, Colin Smyth, Mark McElroy, Diarmaid Maher, Noel Nicholson, David Connolly, Jon McGrinder, Tiernan O'Rourke, Paddy Folan. Subs - Ger Hayes for Ryan, Barry Lynch for McGrinder. Tweet

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