St Kiernan's 1-13 Fulham Irish 0-12

St Kiernan's claimed their second London SFC title with a four-point win in an ill-tempered final over defending champions Fulham Irish at McGovern Park in Ruislip.

It was St Kiernan's who got the first point of the game in the third minute. Chris Farley scored from a free as the North Londoners looked to set the pace.

Fulham Irish then hit back with a score of their own through Mattie Walsh. The two sides met each other point for point in the minutes leading up to the first water break, where a Walsh white flag gave his side a 0-04 to 0-03 advantage.

On the resumption, Fulham Irish seemed to be the side ramping up the gears and pushed out their lead to two.

But St Kiernans, sensing the game could easily slip away from them, found some rhythm and Paul O'Farrell, Will Brazil and Marcus Mangan kept their side in the hunt for a first title since 2016.

It was a half full of full-blooded tackles and as the players headed down the tunnel the sides had to be separated from each other.

There was further drama when both came out for the second half. St Kiernans' Keith Curran and Thomas Waters received their marching orders from referee Gavin Dixon before Fulham's Paddy Naughton, Chris Duggan and Ruaidhri O'Connor were also sent packing.

Both sides subsequently had two players each black-carded.

St Kiernans eventually got themselves back level and then James Moran pointed to give them the lead before Chris Farley rattled the net the with 45 minutes on the clock to push their advantage to four points.

Liam Staunton, Eoin Kilcommins and David O’Connor were keeping Fulham in it with fine scores but St Kiernans now firmly held the upper hand

Farley, who top-scored for the winners with 1-03, added another point and Marty Hughes became the fourth player in a Fulham Irish shirt to see red.

St Kiernans kept the scoreboard ticking to eventually claim their second senior title.

As a club, it was their third championship final of the year. Their London-born junior championship side lost out to St Claret's, while their reserve team lost to Fulham Irish in the curtain-raiser to today's senior decider.

St Kiernans: Mark Roche; Geoff Kingston, Paul O’Farrell (0-01), Keith Curran, Mark Mullholland, Eoin Walsh, David Carabine, Shan McManus, James Moran (0-01), Thomas Waters (0-01), Chris Farley (1-03), Caoimhim Carthy, Will Brazil (0-01), Kenny O’Connor, Marcus Mangan (0-02)

Subs: Padriag O’Shea (0-02), Kenny O’Connor, Mark Rowland for Paul O’Farrell, Aodhran Girven (0-01) for Will Brazil.

Fulham Irish: Johnny Tavey; Owen Costello, Conor Hyde, Paddy Naughton, Ronan Sloane, Rory O’Connor, Daire Rooney (0-01), David O’Connor, Charles O’Doherty, Stefan Mason (0-03), Mattie Walsh (0-03), Chris Duggan, Dave Connern, Michael Murphy (0-01), Liam Staunton (0-02)

Subs: Emmett Costello for Cono (0-01)r Hyde, Eoin Kilcommins (0-01) for Charles O'Doherty, Douglas Lynch for David O’Connor, Martin Hughes for Michael Murphy.