As the business end of the football season approaches, all eyes are on silverware - none more so than London Hibernian.
Hibs is a football club based in London, by Irish expats living and working in London, after the merger of UCC Diaspora and Tooting Celtic.
The Irish Mirror spoke to one of the club's co-chairmen, co-club secretary Gavin Falconer and one of the Saturday team's managers, Ronan Curran.
Falconer spoke about the moves that have been made to establish the club as a mainstay
"We've had lads who have come down thinking it's just a group of Irish lads and have been surprised about the good standard of play. Everyone is so nice.
"Many lads who lived in north London have moved south now because that is where most of us live. Even some of the lads' girlfriends have become friends and started doing things outside of the club, which is exactly what we wanted to see happen.
"London can be a tough place and quite lonely, particularly as some lads are quieter than others so it's an easier way for them to chat about football."
There have been express efforts to keep the playing squad - over the Saturday and Sunday sides the number is over 100 now - on board with the ethos.
"It's about getting lads who are perhaps not playing so much, to get them onto the committee and keep them involved but then also getting new lads into the club as well. Even from a social aspect as well, making sure that lads come out after as well.
"Even if new lads aren't registered yet, we get them to come down and watch and come out for a drink afterwards so that we build that sense of community."
Curran concurs and says that the club was particularly important in keeping spirits up during lockdown, where they took part in group-wide competitive training drills.
"Some of the lads were at my stag and wedding, some of us have been on holidays together so it has been massive. Things like the exercise competitions [during lockdown] helped keep lads in shape and injected a bit of competitiveness into a pretty boring situation.
"I came back on board this year, and it's no coincidence that we're about to win a treble! I'm a debt collector, psychologist, social secretary, player liaison officer..."
Curran, thankfully, has some help from people who have actual qualifications that exist outside their own head, like Hibernian's coach Luke Barrett.
Barrett has professional coaching badges himself and moved from being the team's goalkeeper to their coach, and oversees both Saturday and Sunday sides.
"He runs training for both teams, but calls on senior players to help balance the workload in transitioning from one drill to the next. For the Saturday team, he is the outright manager and leads in tactics and selection.
"On the Sunday side, he would help with training but another guy James runs the team."
Balancing skill and the desire to keep a London Irish community together can be tricky, but the ethos of the club has won through to keep everyone on board with their footballing and social goals.
"The good numbers are a blessing and a curse - we have something like 90 people across the two teams which is great but can occasionally cause issues when we're looking to train.
"From our side, we want to make sure we're getting enough from that small amount of time training together on a Wednesday, when we're chasing three trophies.
"We split the training and it has really worked - Luke deserves immense credit for taking the Sunday team as well when he isn't duty-bound to do that. Clearly, the improvements are massively coming in the Sunday teams and it is a team effort.
""Luke has different tactics which has helped us massively in some games."
The squad and interest in the club has come around mainly from mutual friends and social media, but there was a defined effort to try and reach into the Irish diaspora to get new players on board.
"One thing we did last summer was write to a bunch of universities and clubs we knew in Ireland, and it was our pitch that anybody who played at home could come and play for us.
"We pitched it as a way to come and meet new people as well because how do you do that if it's not direct through work?"
Hibs help with work too, in a way that would be familiar to anyone on nodding terms with GAA clubs in particular.
"There are lads who are in jobs who come play with the team, you get to know lads and it almost works like a mentorship group at times.
"You might getting chatting to lads who may work in tech, they might be in finance or something, and are able to make connections and introductions through the group.
"Some guys love the referral fees but some guys just want to help as well"
"Even from an accommodation point of view, it's a lot easier to find a proper roommate when you meet people who you're on the same page as."
As the business end of the season approaches, Hibernian play in the London Junior FA Cup final on Friday, at Coles Park Stadium in Tottenham. Their opponents are last year's finalists, FC Petrocub.
This would represent their first trophy after their merger, and the boys are quietly - very quietly - confident.
"There are 125 clubs that enter this competition, and you have to respect anyone who makes it to the final.
"For us, next year if we can win the league and the London Cup then we can market it better and get more players in - some will retire or move away so that would help us create an even bigger and better community.
"We could have three or four teams next year."
For a club that has achieved so much this far, it is not hard to imagine that is a distinct possibility.
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