Sporting Hackney heroes win Middlesex County League

By Hackney Citizen | Thursday 20 May 2010 at 11:00

The winning goal scored by Stephen O'Flaherty Photo: © Mel Roberts

Sporting Hackney’s efforts throughout a long hard season were finally rewarded with the first team clinching the Middlesex County Football League Division 1 title, with a goal in the last minute of the last game of the season from Stephen O’Flaherty.

It was a dramatic turnaround in fortunes for the club and O’Flaherty in particular. Just three weeks earlier Sporting suffered a cruel extra time defeat in the League Cup final at the hands of Stedfast United, the winner hitting the back of the net just minutes after O’Flaherty had been sent from the field after committing a second bookable offence.

A week later Hackney faced Stedfast again, this time in the County Cup semi-final. Once again fortune did not favour the Haggerston club, with Stedfast’s last minute winner being deflected into the net by the referee.

After two difficult weeks the team regrouped to take the victory it required to clinch promotion to the Premier League with a 3-2 victory over London United. This time lady luck did smile on Hackney, the win came courtesy of a controversial late penalty that was calmly dispatched by the ever young Alan McQuade.

With promotion secured the team went into the final match knowing that victory against FC Team would bring the coveted league title to East London, anything less and Sporting would have to settle for second place.

Despite dominating the match for long periods of the game Hackney could not make their superiority tell as FC team defended resolutely. With the game goalless deep in injury time, it looked like Hackney’s season would end without silverware.

O’Flaherty, however, had other ideas; rising like the proverbial salmon, the popular Irishman slammed home a header that would have been worthy of winning any league title and sparked wild celebration.

Manager, Ben Watson, was naturally delighted with the outcome, “It’s been another great season for the first team and for the club in general.

“The objective at the start of the season was promotion to the Premier Division, anything else would have been a bonus. We achieved that goal and won the league to boot. We had a cup final to enjoy as well.

Next season we step up to the top division. With a number of players in the increasingly successful 2nd team squad ready to step up and the prospect of a few new local faces, we can look forward to another exciting season.”

The club’s second team finished 7th in the Middlesex County Senior Reserve League and reached the cup quarter final.

Manager Jamie Duff commented, “What’s really encouraging for the reserves is that we’re disappointed to have finished in mid-table, in recent seasons the second team has tended to finish in the bottom three or four. Next season we’ll be expecting to challenge for honours.”

Training for the 2010/11 season will begin on 15 July in London Fields, new players will be welcome to attend. A trial match will also be held around the same time. Details will be confirmed at www.sporting.co.uk nearer the time.

Although the regular season has now finished, each team has one more important match.

The annual 1sts v 2nds match takes place this Saturday 22 May, kick-off at 3.30pm and with SHFC Veterans taking on a team of former players earlier in the afternoon (kick-off 1.30pm) it promises to be a festival of football at Haggerston this weekend! Spectators will be welcome at both matches.

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