Match Reports

14th November 2010: Fingal Ravens 2-8, St. Sylvester's 0-12

Championship Final

A tremendous victory against St. Sylvester's of Malahide to win the Minors Championship. A large number of supporters traveled to Balgriffin on a beautiful Autumn Sunday to witness an historic win for the Minors. Beaten finalists in 2008, beaten semi-finalists in 2009 and now Champions in 2010, this was sweet justice for the players and the management of Malachy, David, Joe and Vinnie who worked extremely hard over the last weeks for this deserved moment in the sun.

It was a great match between two closely-matched teams and it looked for a long time that Sylvester's would just edge it. Throughout, they linked very well from defense through to the forwards and they took their points well to stay ahead for much of the game. However, it is said that Goals win games and it was certainly the case on this occasion. First Paul Casey scored a well-taken penalty in the opening half to keep the Ravens in touch and then in the second half, when they were down to fourteen men and two points behind, Seán Brennan held off the challenges of the last defender and the goalkeeper, kept his cool and slotted the all important score to take the lead, lift the team and they never looked back. The whole of the Ravens defense played brilliantly to stop repeated attempts at goal by Syls. Six nerve-racking minutes of injury time and the referee finally blew and the Fingal Ravens Minors were Champions, job well and truly done.

Celebrations followed in Kettles Hotel for a great and memorable day for the Club. See Gallery for pictures from the day.

31st October 2010: Castleknock 1-6, Fingal Ravens 1-10

    Championship Semi-Final Replay

An amazing comeback win for the Minors team in the replay against Castleknock to reach the Championship Final. With less than 1 minute to go to half-time, this looked impossible and was turning out to be a real Halloween nightmare. Up to then the Ravens could do nothing to stop the onslaught of the Castleknock team who amassed a score of 1-6 to 0-0. The big Ravens support were understandably wondering whether to take permanent shelter from the awful conditions when Alex Duff scored a most valuable goal under their diving goalkeeper.

As they say across the sporting world, scoring just before half-time is crucial, and so it proved true here. The goal gave them the momentum they needed and the Ravens came out the second half a different team. What Malachy said to them at the interval can only be surmised. Two quick points after the restart and they were on their way, now just 5 points behind. Cian was immense in the half back line and stopped any danger from the Castleknock team. Another 2 hard-won points by Shane and Cian and they were within 3. Now things seemed to stall and we all wondered whether the comeback was for nought. Then Malachy made a change and brought on Cian Arthurs, who ignored his injured knee to harass the Castleknock defence and also score a marvellous point to help the Ravens draw level. 4 more unanswered points crowned a superb and memorable comeback and into the Championship final they now go to meet St. Sylvester’s.