It is not easy for any side to win a championship no matter what grade, but Manchester based club St Peter's certainly like to do things the hard way as they claimed the All British Intermediate football championship. Team manager Sean Hopkins explains why their win was so unique. With only five teams in the Lancashire championship, the competition is ran off fairly quickly but after defeating St Laurence's in the Provincial final the club went forward to contest the British championships. Having defeated St Colmcille's in the quarter final, St Peter's were to face St Claret's of London in an epic semi final that went down to the wire. While the winners might even consider themselves quite fortunate to have prevailed in the end, one has to credit the Lancashire champion's sheer persistence, determination and tremendous team spirit for keeping them in contention until the referee Martin Leydon's controversial last-minute decision to award St. Peters a penalty. The Warwickshire official is believed to have awarded the penalty arising out the illegal use of the boot by St Claret's defender Finbarr O'Reilly when tackling St. Peters danger man Barry McGeehan. Trailing by just a point following a goal by McGeehan four minutes into the final period of extra time, St. Peters had launched a last desperate bid to save the game and following Reilly's intervention appeared to have forced a '45, which the umpire did signal. However, the referee called back the play for a foul in the square on the St. Peters attacker and to the horror of all the Clarets team and their supporters pointed to the spot. The responsibility of taking the Manchester club to the final was entrusted to Kevin Morris. The man who had also played a major role in the St. Peters attack throughout the game held his nerve to beat the despairing dive of goalkeeper Paul Meyers as the ball nestled to his right in the top right corner of the net. The goal gave the Lancashire team an unlikely two-point victory. "We definitely played our part in the excitement of last year's championship," said Sean. "The lads had to go through three replays during the campaign but it was definitely all worth it in the end." And so on to the All-Britain final, where Scottish champions Dunedin Connolly's were the opposition with Leeds being the choice of venue for the decider. And once again a close match was the outcome. The Lancashire champions required two periods of extra time before Brian McMahon extinguished the Scotland team's hopes of winning their first provincial title with his last kick of the game. After a fiercely contested and thrilling encounter it was hailed by many observers as the game-of-the-year in Britain. St Peters had finally won their first provincial title at the fourth attempt of asking. Although there was some dispute concerning the timing and location of the fixture the Lancashire side still remained focused and so sent their opponents back to Edinburgh empty-handed. "It is a great honour for a club like ours to win their first ever All British title and it was thanks to the efforts of the players and many club people who helped during the year that this was achieved," added Sean. Following a successful year in domestic competition, Lancashire champions St Peter's were crushed by Tyrone's Pomeroy Plunketts last December. In possibly the biggest club fixture in several years the visitors were rarely tested in their 5-15 to 1-2 victory at the Old Bedians ground, Manchester. Despite this heavy defeat St Peters will have learned much about the standard of football in Ireland. "It was unfortunate to lose by so much in the All-Ireland quarterfinal but we were happy enough with the year we had as it will go down as the best in the club's history," stressed Sean. St Peter's roll of honour has taken on a new look following last year's success with one All British championship and eight Lancashire senior football titles at the top of their list. The GAA in the UK has been expanding over the years and work throughout the schools has promoted the games ten-fold in the last decade or so. Although clubs still have to worry about players returning home and whether or not they will have enough players to field a team, this could all be a thing of the past if football catches on with the many different cultures throughout Britain. Apart from managing the St Peter's club, Sean has been working as chairman of the Lancashire board for the past three years while also being a director of J Hopkins (Contractors) Ltd, a civil engineering company that have been established for almost 30 years . The company employs 60 people directly and the firm specialise in road surfaces and do the majority of their work for local councils. Sean admits that his job takes up the majority of his time but his love of the GAA is his main passion in life apart from his family of course. "I have been involved with the GAA for the most of my life. I started playing when I was at school and it just took off from there. It can be very time consuming especially being involved with the Lancashire Board but I enjoy it and it's great to see the game being promoted," said Sean. The Lancashire GAA County Board continued its proud tradition of bringing Gaelic games to youngsters with a new initiative in conjunction with the Irish Diaspora Foundation. Former Manchester United soccer star Dennis Irwin gave his backing to the project at Burnage High School. The Board's youth development committee in Lancashire is a model for integrating Gaelic games with local schools. The youth element of Lancashire was showcased in 2004 with county champions St. Ann's reaching the inaugural junior football provincial final. Although defeated by the fluid football of London's Heston Gaels, St. Ann's are real contenders for future competitions. At county level Lancashire U21s faced London in the provincial final at Pairc na hÉireann. The Londoners defeated Lancashire by 1-15 to 2-8 after a thrilling game. Lancashire also had a hard-fought battle against Waterford in the All-Ireland JFC semi-final at Old Bedians in July. The UK side refused to buckle under Waterford's pressurising and attacking style of play. Although the game ended with Lancashire 11 points in arrears they acquitted themselves well against the eventual All-Ireland winners. Tweet

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