Huge achievement as Sporting make history
MAYOR OF FINGAL PRAISES TEAM'S HUGE SUCCESS
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A TOP Irish team heading for Europe. That's how Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Ciaran Byrne, summed up the achievements of Sporting Fingal at the club's homecoming party in Swords Castle last week.
' What an incredible week this has been for Sporting Fingal and for County Fingal,' Cllr Byrne told the hundreds of supporters in attendance.
'The players, management and support staff have made football history by doing an incredible double, only two years after the club was founded. 'My earliest memory - it wasn't that horrible day you'll all remember when we got hockeyed in Longford – was actually a friendly against UCD.
'Isn't it amazing that was one of their first matches and now they're both going up to the top league?
'Since then, the team has shown tremendous team spirit. Great management, as well as outstanding support from the supporters and financial backers has turned them into a top Irish team heading for Europe next year.'
Cllr Byrne spoke of the club's 'enormous achievements', both on and off the field, which stretched as far as Zambia - where top scorer, Conan Byrne, is currently on an aid mission - and he recalled the words of the RTE match commentators during the cup final.
' They praised the quality of character to keep going during the match, right up to the very end, the teamwork of Sporting Fingal,' Cllr Byrne added.
'They also said, 'isn't it refreshing that in a year of crises and a lack of confidence that Sporting Fingal, a breath of fresh air in the League of Ireland, stressing only a positive community involvement in a football club, are taking the FAI Ford Cup back to north Dublin for the first time'.
'Fingal County Council getting behind this club was a remarkable success. It is the way to go. Community is where football came from, where it belongs and we've always got to hang on to that thought.'
- Robin KIELY
