LUCAN United’s over 35 side have gelled instantly to win the AFL South Dublin Division 3 title at the first time of asking.
The team was only formed last year but that didn’t stop them putting in a string of impressive performances to win 17 of their 20 games, scoring 79 goals in the process.
After initial inquiries to the amateur football league, Kevin O’Toole and Jason Kavanagh went ahead with plans to set-up Lucan United’s first ever over 35s side.
A lot of the players in the team are ex-players of Lucan United who turned 35 and wanted to continue playing, while others hadn’t played the game for four or five years.
United winger Gavin Nolan spoke to the Gazette about how the team came together.
“A lot of the lads would have played at a decent level and we were going into the bottom league,” he said. “I’m not going to say it was easy for us but we had a lot of experienced lads who played the likes of Leinster senior league football.
“We were also helped greatly by a few of the lads from Liffey Valley Rangers who came to us when their team folded.”
After an impressive season, the team came up against Cottage Celtic with three games remaining – Celtic being the only team who could stop them winning the title.
“We beat them at home 4-0 earlier in the season but we lost this game 5-3, meaning we had to win both our remaining fixtures to secure the title,” said Nolan.
Lucan’s golden oldies weren’t to be denied, however, and when they followed up a hard fought 5-3 win away to Terenure, with a 6-0 thrashing of Killinarden in their own backyard, the title was theirs.
The team’s success sees them move up to division 2 and Nolan thinks that a second successive promotion is more than possible.
“We played a lot of the top teams in friendlies and put up good performances against them.”
Among those friendlies, they drew 2-2 with Cherry Orchard and losing narrowly to Peamount United, both of whom are in the top division.
Nolan insists that a management structure of O’Toole supported by Kavanagh and Mat Finlay has been the key for United this season, and with them expecting to have a Saturday and Sunday team next season and further success for the side looks likely.
** Lucan United over 35s are currently looking for new players and further information can be found on their Facebook page.
