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Fulham Irish overcome Parnells in Championship by 0-13 to 0-08 (Sunday 16-August-2009)
 On a pleasant summers evening at Ruislip, Fulham Irish secured their
senior championship for 2010 with victory over Parnells. With both
teams having lost their first two championship games victory was
essential to avoid the relegation playoff.
Playing against the wind in the first half Fulham took the lead in
the first minute with a point from Eamon O Cuiv. Richie Dempsey and
Brendan Quinn then traded points, with Parnells tagging on two more
before Harry Murphy brought the sides level in the twelfth minute,
stepping inside the defender to slot neatly over the bar.
Parnells then took control of the game hitting 3 points without reply
and with the loss of Brendan Quinn with injury Fulham were struggling
to create scoring chances. Noel Nicholson stemmed the flow in the
25th minute coolly dispatching a 40 metre free against the wind after
a foul on Barry Mc Caffrey but Parnells finished the half stronger
with a point on the stoke of half time to leave the half time score 0-
7 to 0-4 in favour of Parnells.
Fulham Irish started the second half with more purpose and got the
first score of the half through Kevin McElroy. A fine individual
effort from the Parnells full forward on 10 minutes proved to be
their last score of the contest as Fulham slowly imposed themselves
on the game. A superb piece of fielding form Gary O Hare from a
Parnells kick-out set the tone for the Fulham lads and with
increasing confidence levels they took the game to Parnells. A foul
on Brendan Quinn, who had returned to the game, resulted in a routine
free for Nicholson but his subsequent efforts were far from routine
as he powered over a free from 65 meters in the 13th minute and
followed up with one from all of 70 metres in the 15th minute to draw
the sides level.
The Fulham defence was now playing much better as a unit and repelled
a number of Parnells attacks with Eamon O Cuiv and Gary O Hare
mopping up a lot of loose ball and the energetic Colin Reilly bombing
forward to support the attack. Fulham were enjoying the lions share
of possession and were rewarded with another Nicholson free in the
20th minute after a foul on the hard working Barry Mc Caffrey who was
imposing himself more and more on the game.
O Cuiv tagged on another point in the 22nd minute after a fluid move
down the left wing involving Colin Reilly and Kevin Mc Elroy and John
Fitzgerald further extended Fulham’s lead two minutes later, his shot
clipping the cross bar on the way over; indeed such was the ferocity
of his effort that the nearside umpire was momentarily stunned into
waving the ball wide but was soon set right by the other umpire, the
referee and the entire Fulham bench.
Fulham retained possession in the final minutes and Harry Murphy made
the game safe with a point in the second minute of extra time and it
was fitting that after a fine individual performance Nicholson closed
the scoring with a point from play.
Fulham were best served by Derek Sheridan, Colin Reilly and Gary O
Hare at the back, Barry Mc Caffrey in the middle and Noel Nicholson
and John Fitzgerald upfront. Richie Dempsey and Damian Holland were
best for Parnells.
With Championship 2009 now over Fulham have a final league game and
hopefully a league final to look forward to.
Fulham Irish
Derek Sheridan, Eoin Davis, Colin Reilly, Ken Mc Grath, Kevin Mc
Elroy, Donal Conlon, Gary O Hare, Andrew Davidson, Diarmuid Maher
(Brendan Quinn), Brendan Quinn (Fergus O Domhnaill, Diarmuid Maher),
Barry Mc Caffrey, Harry Murphy, Noel Nicholson, Eamon O Cuiv, John
Fitzgerald.
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