The seed for this match was sowen in April on a facebook conversation between two former Derham Park lads Gerry Guildea and Paul Barlow and bore fruition on Saturday 12th September in the football grounds of the Cock Tavern, Gormanston.
I scoured London looking for ex work & football colleagues willing to give up their weekend with their friends and family to cross the water to the land of my fathers.
It didn’t take long! Eleven lads volunteered almost immediately.
We booked into the Bracken Court Hotel and within a couple of hours of arriving I was showing them the delights of the McCormack’s Bar on Dublin Street, O’shea’s and After Dark along the harbour where a great night was had by all.The following morning, we all took a walk along the beach to Martello Tower where there was a couple of kids football games being played, so we thought we’d watch for a while to see if we could pick up some tips!
Then continued our walk up towards the older part of Balbriggan, Seapoint, Derham & Craoibhin Park’s and down through Hampton Street meeting old friends and neighbours along the way. By the time we arrived back at the Hotel it was time to head off to play the match. 3pm KO.
Tony Healy from Balbriggan.net and Colin Whelan the regular facebook cameraman from Balbriggan arrived to take some pictures of the historic event! Met up with Paul Barlow and his team and the Referee Patrick Dunne. Paul won the toss and we kicked off.
Within the first 10 mins things were pretty even until the deadlock was broken by the London Lad’s centre forward Paul Johnson, who went on to score a hat-trick.
The score at half time was 5-0, until the local lads were awarded a penalty which was duly converted, 5-1.
It was a while again before another opportunity was taken by the London Lads to open up the Local lads defence and pull away once more. A breakaway in the middle of the park and a through ball laid on Guildea for one of his brace to make it 6-1. With 15 mins the go and the Local lads still battling to get back into the game they were caught 3 more times on the counter attack and for the game to finish up 9-1.
We all had a welcome meal and some drinks in the Cock Tavern after the game and arranged for the Local lads to come to London in April next year and hopefully we’ll return to Balbriggan next September.

On behalf of all the London Lads I would like to say a big thank you to Paul Barlow for helping me arrange the match and to all his and muy players for playing the game in such a sporting manner. Also to the staff of the Bracken Court Hotel and of course to friends and family in Balbriggan for their hospitality.Also we would like thank the weather for being so kind!
One major thanks goes to Tony Healy from Balbriggan.net for covering the game with his fantastic photos.
Can’t wait til next year!,
Cheers
Gerry Guildea