The date: Sunday July 25th. The time: 4pm. The venue: The Harbour Field, Maynooth. The occasion: The final of the Joe Murphy Memorial Trophy 2004. The teams: The Old Dublin Roaders, the current champions versus Castlebridge Celtic, the slight favourites going by current form.

The Old Dublin Roaders, missing one or two of their flair players from last season’s tournament, had a tough time making it to this year’s final. However, an epic penalty shoot-out success in the quarter-finals and a narrow 1-0 silver goal victory in the semi-finals showed that they had the vital ingredients necessary to win this much-coveted trophy – experience, natural ability and ice coolness under pressure. Castlebridge had won every one of their games coming into the final, an impressive feat considering the overall quality in this year’s tournament.

The game began at a frenetic pace. Both sides were obviously eager to do battle. A crowd of some 400 knew that they were in for a thrilling afternoon. Passes were going astray, tackles were being mistimed, clear opportunities on goal were few and far between. The referee was having a tougher afternoon than most, one or two very dubious decisions caused pandemonium among the natives on the sidelines.

After 19 minutes of mostly resolute and gritty stuff, which would have be more suited to a Gerard Houllier training session, we saw one moment of sheer genius. Pádraic Flood, the Old Dublin Roaders talisman, picked up a loose ball played out to the wing by the Castlebridge defence. He looked up momentarily and without hesitation, floated a ball from all of 40 yards which soared over the bewildered goalkeeper into the far corner of the net. The assembled masses erupted in awe. Having been floored as he launched his effort on goal, Flood dusted himself down, smiled inwardly and offered a royal bow of appreciation to the cheering Roaders’ fans on the sidelines. Many outsiders would say that his effort was a fluke, that there was no way he could have meant it. Those who know the game would say that if you have a shot on goal, you’re not trying to hit the stands.

The Roaders were in control of the game from that moment on. Indeed they could have added to their lead, hitting both post and crossbar in the second half. The Castlebridge goalkeeper was having a difficult time recovering from the shock of the goal he had conceded. Any confidence he had in his ability had been well and truly shattered. After 3 minutes of injury time the referee blew the final whistle. Relief and joy were etched into the faces of the Roaders’ heroes. They had retained the holy grail of 7-a-side football, the Joe Murphy Memorial trophy.

The match itself will be quickly forgotten. The winning goal will be remembered for many a footballing day.

The victors, in order of appearance, were: