Chris Stewart admits it was an “emotional” day on Saturday as he led his beloved Finaghy to the 2A title and with it a historic promotion into Intermediate football.
Sitting pretty at the top of the table for the majority of the season, Stewart’s men, currently based on the other side of town at the Billy Neill Centre, could only be denied by Willowbank, and only if their rivals won all their remaining games, the last of which pitted them against the league leaders.
But a 1-1 draw at the weekend maintained Finaghy’s one-point advantage and saw them crowned champions, denying Decky McCrory’s side a third consecutive title in the process, although both sides expect to join the Intermediate ranks next season.
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For Stewart, however, seven years after taking on the job of manager, which he shares now with John Lamb, this season has been the sweetest of success stories.
“I’ve lived in Finaghy all my life and even when I wasn’t at the club, at Derriaghy or Dunmurry Rec, I always had friends or family playing at the club and I always went and met them for a beer no matter where I’ve been playing so it’s a dream come true to bring Intermediate football to Finaghy,” he said.
As he bathed in the glory -- literally and metaphorically, as he spoke to Match from his hot tub – Stewart emphasised it was a team effort which saw the season culminate with a title.
“I’m proud and emotional but you’re only as good as the team around you, John (Lamb) and Jamie (McKeag) and Clarky (Stephen Clarke), the whole management group behind the scenes.
“You’re only as good as the people around you and I’ve plenty of good people around me. It’s been a big effort from everyone and we’re lucky enough to have plenty of people who muck in.
“Now it’s about building and pushing on, if you stand still, you are going nowhere.”
On Saturday’s draw, he added: “I’m probably a wee bit biased but I thought we looked stronger than them and we sort of wanted it a wee bit more on the day.
“We had a game plan and executed it to a tee, we could have killed the game off second half but they are a top side, they are never out of the game but the boys dug deep and got us over the line, it was unbelievable.”
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