A dream season as Peter Witherow guides North London Shamrocks to glory as manager

North London Shamrocks manager Peter Witherow praised the sacrifice and work effort of his side following their London championship win over St Kiernan’s last Sunday in McGovern Park.  

In what was his first season in charge of the London club, the All-Ireland winner with Donegal in 2012 admits it has been a rewarding year that has seen his side capture their first London champions in the club’s history.  

Having moved to the club after returning from the USA over six years ago, the St Michael’s man has seen the club go from strength to strength, with a massive increase in Donegal players playing for his side in the last three years.  

He served for a number of years as a player and as a coach under Termon native Michael Boyle, before taking over the mantle this season.  

His ultimate aim was to bridge the gap with the top teams in the competition and to make the team run as smoothly as a championship team would be in Ireland.  

“There were a number of Donegal men already involved with North London Shamrocks for a number of years before myself and Michael Boyle got involved,” Witherow said.  

“I joined up as a player and then as a coach, and it was only about three years ago we got a large batch of Donegal players to play for the club, and it just snowballed from there really.  

“A lot of Donegal lads either knew someone from the area, or was looking for a bit of work, or whatever, but that’s where the Donegal connection stemmed from, and between the senior and reserve team, I think we have 20 Donegal men on the books.  

“I moved over to London six years ago and I went straight into the club. We had a good senior side back then and were only a few years off the back of winning an intermediate title, but we knew we had to bridge a gap between us and the top teams.  

“When one of our founding members Tom Kilcommons passed away last year, that was the catalyst we needed to get things in order in terms of recruitment and organisation to get us over the line.”  

Having previously worked with All-Ireland winner Michael Boyle, Witherow felt the timing was right to take on the role of manager and bring in new ideas such as S&C coaching and dieting.  

“I was eventually asked to take over as manager which I felt was the natural progression because I knew a lot of the lads from my time when Michael Boyle was involved as a coach,” he said.  

“So, this season we decided to freshen things up in terms of having a recruitment drive and trying to get new lads into the club. We also started things like meals after training and getting a S&C coach in Ciarán Gillespie from Gaoth Dobhair.  

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“So, it was small things like that which really helped along the way, and we were just trying to get it as close to a senior championship-winning team back home.  

“It was also a help that we had 10 players in with the London team this season and they were bringing that county attitude and that fitness to the team which was key on the day.”  

Carrying the tag of underdogs having already lost twice to their north London rivals, Witherow admits that the nerves of a final never bothered his side as they led by two points at the break despite conceding an unfortunate goal before the half-time whistle.  

“We played St Kiernan’s twice this season and they beat us by six points in both games,” he said. “They are a top side who were going for three out of four championships, so they were definitely favourites, but we knew where we could get at them and we knew where we could cut out their strengths.  

“To be fair to the boys they went at them and had real confidence that we could pull out a performance on the day and thankfully we did.  

“Even when we gave away a very soft goal before halftime, it was frustrating because we were five-points up at that stage, but the boys never panicked and we actually came out and played better in the second half.”  

Largely led by Michael Carroll and Daniel Clarke in midfield, the game was very much in Shamrocks’ hands, with Ciarán Diver ensuring they made history as he sent the ball between the posts deep into injury time to confirm North London Shamrocks as senior champions for the first time on a 1-11 to 1-8 scoreline.  

“We dominated the kickouts and the breaks, we were excellent throughout to be honest,” Witherow said.  

“It couldn’t have got any better as a first season. We have the Mayo champions now, but listen, we’re under no illusion that it’ll be a tough test to beat the Mayo champions, but we’ll give it our best rattle.”