St. Fiacc’s crowned Tullys Travel Division 1 Champions
St Fiacc's celebrate their win
It’s been some week for the parish of Graiguecullen after St. Fiacc’s followed in the footsteps of their neighbours St. Pat’s to be crowned Tullys Travel Division One Champions, making them the second league champions in the parish in the space of a few days. The win sees the club return to the Premier Division for the first time since 2019.
Just four days on from the first meeting between these two sides, and played in the cage that is the Superbowl in Leighlinbridge with linesmen after the chaos that ensued in the previous fixture, Fiacc’s managed to get the better of Dolmen. Knowing they only needed a point to win, whereas Dolmen needed to win to force a play-off, Fiacc’s were always one step ahead of Dolmen, keeping a cushion at all times.
Fiacc’s took the lead after six minutes as Aaron Dorgan buried a free from the edge of the box into the top right hand corner. 14 minutes later though, Dolmen equalised as Joe Doran fired in a header. Seconds into the second half, Jack Byrne restored the Fiacc’s lead. Just after the hour mark, a Doran cross was deflected into the back of his own net by the head of Fiacc’s captain Bobby Dowling as Dolmen levelled. Fiacc’s restored their lead. Jayden Kelly hit an effort from distance which was palmed away. The resulting corner from Kelly from the left led to a scramble in the box and the ball was eventually bundled into the back of the net by Dowling. With 16 minutes to go, Kian Lawler sealed the deal.
Speaking afterwards, manager, Pete Dorgan admitted that with the squad they have he would have seen it as a failure if they hadn’t won the league this year. “ He also said that whilst winning a league trophy is great, it means a lot more to get back into the Premier. “Winning any division, any trophy is great, that’s why we play football, but I think the thing is just getting the club back into the Premier Division because that’s where the club wanted to be and what they want to achieve, so I think it’s a bigger thing to be back in the Premier than anything. “Having the squad of players we have, if we didn’t win the division I would have seen it as a massive failure on our part, on my part because it’s the best squad of players in the division. I think that’s what made the difference, when we do play teams you can see the difference coming off the bench, so I think we really did need to win it this season.”
