travelling the world & also the formation of Cuchulainn Gaels in the North East of England. We wished our former team-mates the best of luck but we knew our paths would cross later in the year.

Young Irelands had a very strong representation on the Yorkshire team, including our player/manager John Hastings as a selector. Alas there was no All Britain to be had this year but the team gave their all in a classic with Scotland that went to extra time. Hertfordshire out muscled a weakened Yorkshire team a few weeks later.

The Pennine League began in earnest with Young Irelands getting off to a slow start.
Our luck turned though with the recruitment of a few new lads, Joe & Niall from Tyrone, Gareth from Down, Sean from Wicklow & Aidan from Kerry. The return of Paul Sands the big Armagh man was a great boost as well, he went on to have a great year. As the season went on we continued improving and went on a winning streak qualifying for the semi-final of the Pennine League only to be excluded by the committee for some bizarre reason. Not much changes…………..

On the Junior front we had a very successful year getting to the Junior League Final losing narrowly in a thriller at Scothall Rd. This team wasn’t prepared to take defeat lying down and came out the following week to rout Huddersfield in the Championship final. Some of the football played that day was exceptional.

The Padraig Kenny memorial 7 a side cup was the next on offer in Yorkshire. This was again a great day for Young Irelands with the cup again being won for the 2nd year in a row. This day will also be remembered for some elaborate goal celebrations by Conor Neeson, he does practice them!!! Jerome really played his part in this victory.

At this stage of the year the heat was turned up at training readying ourselves with the semi-final of the championship. We had drawn our old friends from Newcastle in the semi final. Thought by most including the referee before the game to be a meeting of the 2 strongest teams in Yorkshire, this seems to have been confirmed by the score in the final afterwards.

Young Irelands were going for the 3 in a row but unfortunately we met with the same fate as Kerry and not Kilkenny. The game with Newcastle was one of the closest played in Yorkshire in years. There wasn’t an inch neither asked for nor given. The game was a real cut and thrust championship game with Newcastle prevailing by 2 points in the end. The game will be best remembered though for the best goal seen in Yorkshire football in many the year, the man with the golden boot was none other than Gary Kernan. It was a bullet, the net was almost burst.

As always happens when after defeat, we look at what-ifs??? What if Reggie hadn’t badly dislocated his finger in the last training before the match, what if Gareth had been fully fit? What if Niall had been available? What if we hadn’t kicked 15 wides? What if I had stopped my man going for that goal?? Alas it just wasn’t meant to be…..

Looking forward there is one tournament left to be played for in November, it is the 9 a side under lights. Young Irelands will be looking to end the year on a high.

Just a thank you to the men who keep this club going through countless hours of hard work and determination. 4 men stand head and shoulders above everyone here, they are :
The new Don Juan Hutchy, the big man in the middle Fla.
The wise man on the line or most of the time stuck in the middle of it all John Hastings. The man who is really at the heart of everything that happens in Yorkshire Jimmy Houghton.

I couldn’t let this opportunity pass without mentioning the legend that is Billy Spellman, Billy is the only 67 year old I know of that has played in 4 games this year, ran Neeson very close for his place on the championship team too but Neeson just about got the vote in a hung jury. Hutchy reckons he got more passes from Billy this year than he got from anyone else.

Any players looking for a club in Leeds or the surrounding area, I’ll just give you a quick piece of advice to say don’t be hassled or rushed into signing transfer forms by old men in pubs etc. come down and meet us, go for a couple of pints and get to know the lads. We are the best football team in Leeds and definitely the most sociable with players from most counties in Ireland. Come down and meet the lads, a lot of characters often spotted around the many watering holes of Leeds.

Looking forward to next year already,
Thanks for taking some time to read this, I hope you found it entertaining.

Yours in Sport,
Patrick Fahey.