EVERGREEN JAN 1998

4/1/98


EVERGREEN

Evergreen are enjoying a good season, the highlight so far being their penalty shootout win over Kinsale in a thrilling Murphy's Stout President's Cup final at Turner's Cross. The southsiders are also doing well in Murphy's Stout AUL 3 and are in with a great chance of promotion.



Evergreen, beaten in the Saxone final last season, also won the President's Cup in 1995/96. Other honours won since the club was re-formed in 1963 are: Third Division Shield (1967, beat Evergreen Bacon Factory in a derby at The Cross); (Third Division League (1967, beat Blarney 3 - 0 in the final at Church Road); First Division Shield (1972, beat Tramore Ath. 1 - 0 at the Cross); Second Division League (1973, beat Barrackton 2 - 0 in the final at Church Road), and AUL Three B championship (1987).



Current Evergreen panel: Mark Maher, Colin Maher, Padraig O'Callaghan,

Anthony O'Regan, Don Heaphy (captain), Donal O'Sullivan, Ivan Gibbons, Paul Madden, Colin McCarthy, Eamonn Hayes, Kevin O'Reilly, Paul Williamson, Gary Gibbons, Niall Moriarty, Owen Healy, Brian Morgan, Shane Dineen, Michael O'Sullivan, Noel Twomey, John Ridgeway, and Terence McSweeney.



The current officers are Dave Brady (Chairman/treasurer), and Gary Gibbons (secretary). Both their families have long been associated with the Turner's Cross club. Take the Gibbonses for example. Back in 1987, when Evergreen won the championship in 3B, Paul Gibbons and son Alec figured on the team. This season, Paul's sons Ivan and Gary play in the green and white colours.



Despite the long standing contributions of these families, Evergreen is far from being an "exclusive" club and new members are always welcome. Current home ground is The Farm on the Curraheen Road and training takes place every Tuesday at the Mardyke floodlit pitch.



The club, who again play in Division 3 of the AUL, proudly traces its history back to 1932. True, there have been some years in between when Evergreen were not represented on the field but don't say that too loudly around Turner's Cross.



During a memorable 1949 season, they lost just one game, a replay of the

Munster Minor League final when North End emerged victorious 2 - 0; the first meeting had ended at 1 - 1.



Tt was a tremendous year for the Evergreen club, the first triumph coming on April 18th 1949 when they defeated South Lake United in the final of the Munster Minor Shield. The first North End game was played in May with the replay in June. In October they won the Munster Minor Cup, beating Clonmel 2 - 1 in the final and, a few weeks later, defeated Donore 1 - 0 in the final of the FAI Minor Cup.



The club was reformed in 1963 when Joe Conway, a prominent member of the 1949 minor team, Ray Leahy, Henry Fay, and Hughie McSweeney, got together and put a team into the AUL. Conway had also played senior football with Evergreen Utd in the fifties.



Along with Conway, other members of the 1948-49 minor team included: Arthur Morris, Bunny Horgan, John Sutherland, Paddy O'Neill, Joe Mullins, Sonny O'Shea, Jimmy O'Farrell, Michael Dorgan, Patons Keating (captain), Tim Buckley, Jim Magee, and Len Davis.



John Sutherland, still hale and hearty and living in Cheshire, was a leading member of that talented bunch and a year later was signed by English First Division outfit Everton, his first club in a long professional career.



In a note for the 95/96 President's Cup final programme, he recalled the

sporting battles that were held when the only soccer pitch, both junior and minor, was in Douglas: "The soccer fare was so competitive that people used to spend all day Sunday there. Happy days!"



John, an uncle of Greenmount's Leonard Corcoran, obviously enjoyed his time with Evergreen: "Many good things have happened to me in my sporting life but, I can honestly say that the greatest thrill of all was being able to play for my local team Evergreen. That was down, in no small measure, to the part played by the people who ran the club - which is basically true of all clubs.

These people give of their time and energy to the smooth running of things and are the life's blood of the amateur game; long may it continue".



John was one of five Evergreen players in those days who played soccer with the Hoops and Gaelic with Nemo and all were remembered, both at Evergreen's 45th anniversary dinner (for the '49 team) and last year when Nemo celebrated their 50th anniversary. The Nemo connection has always been strong and even this season there are five Nemo players in the current Evergreen panel.