KNOCKANANNA

The new Junior ‘B’ champions of Wicklow, Knockananna, arrived back to the village on Saturday evening to rapturous applause from a huge crowd.

As Suzie said in his interview after the match, he didn’t realise there was that many people in Knockananna. The same crowd two hours previous had witnessed an incredible match and an even better finish.

It looked for all the world the game was going to a replay when deep in to injury time Enniskerry equalised what was truly a pulsating game.

Then, even deeper into injury time, in fact this was the deepest we had ever been, Keith Corrigan set off with the ball from his own defence as he often does and passed to Paddy Byrne and Paddy, from a tight angle, calmly slotted over to give us the lead once again.

The final whistle sounded soon after and then all hell broke loose. Every Knockananna man, women and child descended on to the pitch hugging and kissing each other and the players.

An extremely proud captain, Gary Bradley, received the cup from Phillip Doyle and Martin Fitzgerald.

This has been a fantastic year for Knockananna and there is so many people to thank and that will be done at a later stage.

But what was remarkable was the amount of kids at the game, even in the official photo before the game they were there. The players at the back were standing to attention with their stomachs churning with nerves and kids in front screaming cheese. Long may this continue and a huge thanks to the parents and all our supporters.

Our next game is against Kilmac in the 1916 Memorial Cup on Sunday morning in Knockananna at 11.30am.