Leinster Senior Cup Final 1992 (and why we won)

The Cup Final in 1992 was a great day for those of us who were there. Finally we had beaten our arch rival YMCA, having been humiliated in the 1987 final in our own ground and run them close in Leinster in 1990 in a game that was there for the taking. The monkey was off our backs.

It could have been so different though.  The team that arrive in the Phoenix Park that morning were unusually quiet.  Yes, there was the small matter that the President, Mary Robinson would be visiting the ground ahead of the game, but it was more than that.  Here was a team that was allowing the occasion overtake them.  What was needed was something to lighten the mood.  Help was at hand. Unbeknownst to most, Peter Prendergast had been asked to contribute to the programme by way of Player Profiles of the Clontarf Team.  Someone had been asked to fulfill the same function for YMCA but I will not bore you with their version.  Suffice to say that on that day, Peter's profiles of his team mates became our 14th man - we had two 12th men that day.

Having arrived at the ground suffocated by tension, by the time we left the changing room we were ready for battle (and a few ready to kill Peter). The rest as they say is history.