Amen.

With Timmy's late goal on Saturday, a massive weight lifted from the shoulders.

We won the Championship in 2008, our first year. Pure ecstasy. Once you get a taste of it, you want more. When you don't get it, you become frustrated. We've sunk some amount of time, money and graft into the last four years to do everything we could to get it back.

If ever a man deserved to have the final say in the destination of the Championship, it was our captain Tim Donovan. He had his jaw broken in the first tournament of the season in a fairly horrible incident against The Hague. He struggled with a groin injury mid-summer and broke a finger after Copenhagen.

Every time we've needed him this year though, he has come up trumps. On Saturday he rescued a fairly bleak situation in the final against Guernsey when he went on a solo mission into their defence late in the game to strike gold. It gave us a one point advantage that was enough to win the game and the overall Championship by the same margin.

Jesus, what a day.

We went into the tournament without two of our best players, Cillian and Shaun. We called Pearce up from the Shield panel. I like Pearce a lot but he drives me bonkers because he is so relaxed. Getting him to play within a structure is a near impossible task. I got fairly p1ssed off with him at training a couple of weeks ago and may have suggested he'd be better off not coming training if he wasn't going to buy into the way things were going to be done. Water off a ducks back I feared.

Then he rocked up at the in-house game the following Saturday and took Giller for a tour of the VUB. He ran well, marked well and moved the ball through his hands calmly. He'd put himself in the shop window without even realising.

Amsterdam were first up at the weekend. They were fairly pumped. We were in a bit of a hole in the first half but fought savagely for every ball in the second. Timmy struck for the decisive scores and we grabbed a one point win.

Luxembourg were next. To say it was a sour game is probably an understatement. The first ball I played was a hand pass and as I went to take a return pass I was knocked to the ground. That's where it all started and it rumbled on and on. There were verbals, niggles and sly digs throughout. It boiled over in the second half and hands up, I was lucky not to be sent off. I reacted to some provocation after one of their scores and got in a tangle. I felt it was 50/50 in the sense that the opposition player was as responsible. Fortunately the referee agreed.

Minutes later Lux had a man sent off which considering the previous incident, completely enraged them. I didn't see it but they weren't happy. Everything was going our way. They took a fast free and goaled but the ref called it back as the whistle hadn't gone. We kept our lead and closed the game out.

The rivalry against Lux has intensified since last year. I'm not sure where it has come from on their side. We have a lot of respect for their club but some in theirs don't seem to share that for us. There was the incident in Guernsey last year when we lined up a free and one of their players roared, "we're not going to lose to a sh1t team". Then in Copenhagen, they said in the team talk that they weren't going to lose "to a bunch of prima donnas who never win anything". I don’t know where they take their win/lose stats from.

Up next were The Hague. This is always a weird fixture. Often, we have struggled most when they are missing key players. I much prefer playing them at full strength as a result. They had pretty much everyone on Saturday and took an early lead. I can remember shag all from this game except we again scrapped through by two points.
Compared to Vienna, we were scoring at a miserly rate, maybe an average of 1-6. After 17 goals the last day, it was clear our opponents took the necessary countermeasures.

That result qualified us for the final but we still had a game left against Guernsey. This was an opportunity to knock them out and thus claim the Championship. Also, waiting in the wings were Amsterdam who, if we won the game, would qualify for the final.

Myself, Ross and Timmy discussed how to go at this game. We had lost Laffan in the Lux game to an ankle ligament injury and he could barely walk. I'd picked up Lynchy at the physio that morning and he was struggling. My back and hammers were roaring at me. We both needed a break.

Also, we wanted to keep our cards close to our chest heading into the final, meaning we didn't want to reveal too much of our plan.

With all that said, the team talk was focused on winning the game but at the same time testing one or two things out. Guernsey had put a big man in full forward during the day and our mighty midget defence had no natural counter to it. We decided to put Ger in full back. We gave Karl a man marking job.

In the first couple of minutes, Crusher picked up a nasty hip injury so I had to come on. By half-time the game was getting beyond us. To preserve the legs but keep some energy on the pitch I went in goal and Shane came out. That worked well as he fetched a load of kick-outs. The game was over though.

I felt for Amsterdam but I hope they can understand the approach we had to take.

The lads were fairly down after that result and I'm sure some doubt crept in. My take on it was simple. There was only one way to finish the 2012 Championship and that was to play Guernsey in a winner takes all finale. Winning the Championship in any other way couldn't be the same.

We learned some valuable things from that last group game. Ger was now an option at full back. Karl was more than capable of doing a man marking job. Maybe most crucially, we saw the effectiveness of their keepers’ big kick-out. They used it to by-pass everyone and hit their full forward line directly. It needed thought.

We picked the team to once again counter their key men, with the belief that we could win the other battles.

We made a ballsy enough decision on their kick-outs. Plan B on the opposing teams kick-outs is to 'concede' them. We did this last year when we were getting beaten at midfield. On Saturday, we pulled our full forward line out to cluster the middle of the field. By doing so we were taking a risk - allow them have more possession but in a less dangerous part of the pitch.

Guernsey flew out of the traps and nailed a goal in the opening minutes, adding a point shortly afterwards. We'd been in the same situation before. In Copenhagen, we couldn't come back from it but in Vienna we had. I mentioned in a blog a couple of weeks ago that belief comes from having been there and done it. I wasn't rattled and no-one else seemed to be panicking either.

That wasn't reflected in our shooting as we kicked away a shed load of chances. We were defending well though and managed to get to half-time trailing by just two points, 1-2 to 0-3.

The kick-out plan was working in the sense that they weren't piling ball down on top of us. Once their full back line received the ball, we stepped up immediately to pressure them. They had more possession but were turning over more ball in key areas. I've no idea how the second half scoring went. Someone said we were five points down at one stage and two points down with a couple of minutes on the clock.

Timmy’s moment had arrived. They cleared their lines under pressure. I couldn't get to it before the bounce but managed to get my hands on it. I just about released a hand pass before being clung and then Timmy took off. As he cut in, he lost control slightly but managed to get a hand on the ball and steady it enough to connect with his foot. In she went!

Bodies were falling everywhere with cramp. Guernsey were pouring forward looking for an equaliser.

It's hard to describe to people how your body feels towards the end of a tournament. Standing up is a mission, never mind trying to kick a point. Guersney came at us but tiredness must have been a factor. Their radar was off and time ran out on them.

The whistle finally arrived. Three blows of it with the last one trailing off to bring to game to a finish. A quest that has lasted four seasons coming to an end in the most dramatic fashion possible.

If you could choose how to write the story then that is the only way you would want it.

Of course, one must spare a thought for Guernsey. Given the logistics involved for them to participate, their commitment is insane. Over three tournaments this year, we have fought tooth and nail with them. There have been some big hits along the way but it has been one of the most 'manly' rivalries I've experienced in Europe. I have a huge amount of respect for the way those lads carry themselves, both in victory but more tellingly, in defeat.

One point in the final, one point in the overall standings. After 14 games in the 2012 Pan-European Championship, 5 against Guernsey, that was what separated us in the end.

What a year.

Later in the week....”Why this year was different”.