No pressure as St Brendan’s look for ‘big performance’

THEY have no pitch or clubhouse of their own and played only three championship games in six months last year yet London club, St Brendan’s expect to cause Dr Croke’s a few problems in tomorrow’s AIB All-Ireland Club SFC quarter-final.

The obstacles facing the English team are all too familiar to clubs in the English capital since the arrival of the Celtic Tiger but the club is still managing to flourish in this the year of it’s 50th anniversary.

Where once the Irish community was a stable entity continually reinforced with new arrivals from home, it is now a more transient demographic with IT managers replacing brickies and chippies.

St Brendan’s are lucky in that the St Mary’s teacher training college — a traditional breeding ground in their west London hinterland — is still producing a steady flow of recruits.

As an employee of AIB, Sligo-born Adrian Brett is an exception to that rule in a panel where 23 of the 32 counties are represented but even Brendan’s have found it hard to build a team in the face of the economic and social changes of recent years.

“All the clubs in London admit that it is very hard to keep teams going. You can’t build for two or three years like you can back home but the standard of teams is still quite good. The All-Ireland quarter-finals the last few years have been lost by a few points.”

Despite such near misses, Brett feels further progress is being hamstrung by an all-too familiar complaint.

“The problem is that there aren’t enough teams in the championship, which prevents teams from getting enough momentum. The London Championship has been so stop-start this season. We have had only three games in six months. That’s where they struggle but there are a lot of very good footballers in London.”

Crokes, of course, fly into London with a liberal sprinkling of inter-county talent with Colm Cooper’s name topping the bill. Like the Gooch, Brett is a corner-forward but he quickly nips any other similarities in the bud.

“I wouldn’t dare try and compare myself to him,” he laughed. “He’s a top player and he’s had a couple of great seasons for Kerry. He’ll be a big attraction for people in London who wouldn’t have had the chance to see him otherwise. A lot of their guys would have won an All-Ireland this year with Kerry and they would have a lot of experience but we’re going in without any pressure on us.

“It’s being played in Ruislip which is basically our home ground so hopefully we can put in a big performance. The playing surface is wet and heavy and it won’t be easy to play.”