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Old Trafford trip for Corduff boys

A group of young footballers from Corduff recently enjoyed a trip to Old Trafford including a tour of the ground and dressing-rooms. It was a reward for the remarkable achievement of winning a competition which included 111 teams in Dublin.

Mick Pender, Development Officer for the FAI in the Dublin 15 area says that “ we decided to go back to the street leagues of old. You get players playing with many different teams but sometimes that can mean they don’t get to play with their friends and neighbours as they would have under this system years ago.

“At the start it was a Dublin 15 competiton. When they won that it was into a broader Dublin West tournament and having come through that it was into a competition which had all of Dublin represented. It was a great achievement to win it.”

It all started back in October when the players were invited to play in the Fingal Cup which is a “Futsal” competition organised by the FAI. They played in the first instance in a round robin competition that had eight teams from different parts of Blanchardstown taking part.

After winning that competition they then progressed to the regional competition which included teams from Finglas, Lucan, Ballymun and Clondalkin. Sixteen teams took part at that stage with four teams progressing to the next phase.

For the Corduff boys, while there was disappointment in losing at the semi-final of the regional competition, with four teams qualifying for the next stage the beaten semi-finalists were going through anyway.

The Dublin stage of the competition was held at the ALSA complex near the airport and was an all day event. Expectations among the young Corduff players were not high but like many a good team they improved as the competition went on and after a marathon eight games they found themselves in the final.

Mick Pender was sick on the day of the final but such was his enthusiasm that he kept in contact by phone. The final was won in a tense affair with a penalty shootout needed to separate Corduff and their Finglas opponents with the score at the end being 6-5 to the Dublin 15 team. Already heads are turning to the retention of the trophy as rumour – mischievous or not - has it that the prize might be a trip to Barcelona, which puts even Old Trafford in the shade.

The trip to Manchester went down a treat with these young players. According to their manager Stephen Cleary “it was a well deserved trip. The lads had a great time and so did I. It was a tiring journey but it was well worth it and we had a great laugh with all the lads. They all said they had an outstanding time.

Special thanks to all the lads who made the trip and Whartons tour company for sponsoring the prize.”

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