ON a balmy Saturday evening in early August Darren Newell, Barry Basquille, and Roger Moran sat in the Hop Pole Bar, Wandsworth. Football, as is often the case, was the main topic of discussion.
Not playing the game competitively on a regular basis was something that the Irish boys sorely missed. So a solution was found for the problem, a new club was created: Tooting Celtic. Seven months on following a debut season of encouraging success Newell reflects proudly on the dramatic journey.“It has been a dream season for us,” Newell says.
“Basically a few of us were speaking one night about what we missed from home. Not playing football regularly with our friends was something we liked to do so we just decided to start our own team.”
So Newell entered Tooting Celtic into the Fifth Division of the Southern Sunday Football League. “We have won the League and are promoted with three games to spare so it has been a brilliant season for us. Everything just happened so quickly, we have lads from all over Ireland playing. Everyone in the squad so far is Irish.
“Friends of friends got in contact when they heard what we were going to try to do. That has been so pleasing and we are just delighted with how it has gone for us. Everyone has been very committed to it and obviously there is a great social aspect to it too.
“That is something we feel is important and the lads have been great throughout the year. We want to make Tooting Celtic an important part in people’s lives in the future and the reaction to our start has been brilliant.”
Newell has operated as secretary and manager for Tooting Celtic so far and feels there is room for further growth. “I mightn’t manage next season - that is something I will have to look at. Next season will be a step up for us, but I think the club can develop. That is definitely something we will be looking at.
“Maybe down the line we could have a second team or something like that. We used more than 20 players during the season. Usually we would operate off a matchday squad of around 14. On days everybody was available that was the approach we took and even lads who weren’t involved would come to the games. The contribution of every single squad member was huge for us.
“Overall we definitely think that the club can become stronger. What we found during the year was that there was an appetite for it. A lot of the lads play Gaelic Football too and they found it useful playing for Tooting Celtic.”
Last Sunday week’s emphatic 6-1 victory over AFC Bluebirds guaranteed Tooting the title. Tooting dictated the pace of the contest as Tuam native Ger Cunniffe created two goals for Luke Fitzgerald and Henry Ahern. Then two smashing strikes from Ahern and Cunniffe extended Tooting’s advantage before AFC Bluebirds replied. After the restart Cunniffe and Fitzgerald completed Tooting’s triumph. “It was a great day for us,” Newell admitted. “When you win something it is good and justifies the hard work you’ve put in during the year. We trained once a week on Wednesday evening’s and we usually had good numbers.
“Sunday mornings are hard so it was crucial for us to have a big squad and everybody seemed to enjoy playing for us. We generally togged out with 14 players and we switched it around. The lads really bought into what we were trying to do. Most of them were based in south west London, but a few lads did travel distances to training.”
What is next on the agenda for Tooting Celtic? “It is definitely the plan to try to go up through the Leagues if we can. The standard will increase. In one of the Cup competitions we defeated a team from the Third Division, but we lost 3-0 to a team in the top Division. I suppose that showed that the standard is a good bit better, but I think we can do well and that we are better than Division Five. We’ve been promoted so it is up to us now to try to keep moving forward.”
