Railway Union Hockey

Railway Union Men’s Hockey team won the Leinster Hockey Neville Cup for the third time in five years on St. Stephen’s Day at Serpentine Avenue, Ballsbridge. when Polish striker Mateusz Nowakowski applied a suitably spectacular winning touch to win a very entertaining 4-3 match against a highly-rated Monkstown team brimming full with Irish International players.

The final was a classic end-to-end battle with plenty of thrills and spills amid the downpour of rain.

Railway raced into a 3-0 lead inside the first 19 minutes. After seven minutes, Simon McKeever guided in Kenny Carroll’s sweep pass through a hole down the line of the right post. James Dick made it two in the ninth minute after the Monkstown defence gifted possession to Nowakowski. who took his time before eventually rolling to Dick who bundled the ball in. Goal No. 3 arrived via a Kenny Carroll drag-flick, which stretched the lead to three goals with barely a quarter of the match played.

As could be expected, Monkstown who have been the stand-out team in Irish hockey for the last few seasons, clawed their way back into the match, getting their first goal shortly before half-time, followed by two more to tie the match early in the second half.

Despite allowing Monkstown back into the match, Railway displayed great grit and determination and continued to play good hockey, which was aided and abetted by a great performance from goalkeeper Simon Thornton.

With 23 minutes to go, Richard Forrest’s right wing cross picked out Mateusz Nowakowski and his touch found the top corner of the net to score the winner and also the best of a game packed with high quality goals.

Railway Union: Simon Thornton (GK), David McCarthy, Ravin Nair, Kenny Carroll, Richard Forrest, Simon McKeever, Chris Reilly, Mark English, Nick Tate, James Dick, Rob Devlin. Subs: Mateusz Nowakowski, Fergal Keaveney (Capt.), David Richardson, Eoin MacArthur, Matthew Bretherton.

The Neville Cup is traditionally played every St. Stephen’s day at Serpentine Avenue and the trophy commemorates the legendary sporting family of Nevilles from Portrane in Fingal. The most famous one was Paddy, who represented Ireland at hockey and cricket and played League of Ireland football with Drumcondra and Dundalk as a goalkeeper, representing the League of Ireland on several occasions and was reserve goalkeeper for the full national team on four occasions. If that was not enough, Paddy also won a Dublin SFC medal with Parnells on the GAA front.

Paddy Neville died in 1977, aged 57 years and is still fondly remembered throughout sporting circles in Fingal, Leinster and Ireland.

Railway Union Men’s team wins National Indoor Championship Trophy.

With the EY Hockey League curtailed for the month of January, action turned indoors with the Leinster and National Indoor Championships being held at St. Columba’s College in Rathfarnham.

Railway Union lost out to Three Rock Rovers 7-10 in the Leinster final played on January 10th. However, both teams qualified for the National Championships held on January 17th, where they were joined by N.I.C.S. and Queen’s University from Ulster. Three Rock Rovers hammered Queens 9-1 in their semi-final, while Railway had tougher opponents in NICS winning out 8-4 to set up a mouth-watering repeat of the Leinster final played seven days earlier.

It was a golden spell in the last ten minutes of the first half that put Railway on top in the final, coming from a 2-2 scoreline to go in at the break 6-3 in the lead and they went further ahead 7-3 a minute into the second half when James Dick netted once again. Strangely, that was the last goal that Railway scored and had to contend with several players in the Sin Bin and some missed opportunities for the remaining time. Meanwhile Three Rock reduced the deficit to one goal, with a minute to play but Railway held out for the remaining time to record a hard-earned 7-6 victory to take the Andrew Rose Trophy and avenge the Leinster defeat.
The win ensures that Railway will represent Ireland at European level in 2017.

With Queens University representing Ireland this year, the prospect of playing in an elite group has been diminished somewhat. Let’s hope that Railway secure a favourable draw and get to play at a venue whereby supporters can travel with convenience to support them and enjoy the weekend.

Railway Union Indoor team: Simon Thornton (GK), Mark English, David McCarthy, Nick Tate, James Dick, David Richardson, Chris Reilly, Mateusz Nowakowski , Steven O’Keefee (GK) and Kenny Carroll ( player-coach).