Story of the season

It was one Sunday afternoon in July when the roalacoaster of a journey begun.  15 people crammed into a small upstairs room in the Irish Centre to discuss the possibility of a Irish Centre team being formed. 

Hours later the club had been founded, Chris Helliwell was appointed as manager with Tony Tomlinson as his assistant.  Others were more than willing to help out John Keady and Graham Mann and Gerry Quinn all became involved.

 Chris Helliwell (pictured) took the job of manager on.

It all begun with little pre-season training behind the Huddlers with a home tie, home being Leeds Road playing fields, against Brighouse.  Things went from bad to worse and within twenty minutes the Bhoys were 2-0 down and it was all going rather sour rather quickly, there was no honey moon period for Helliwell and his men.  But in a fashion taht would tell the story of the season they battled back to gain a point in a 2-2 draw.  Kitterick was the first to score a goal in competitive football for ICFC. 

In their first three games came three draws against Brighouse and against first division sides Gomersal and Hepworth. 

Then came the period of the season that made other sides in the second division notice the Huddlers.  The first win coming against Cumberworth away from home then followed four wins on the bounce against Beacon Rangers, Elland Athletic, Thornes and Driglington. 

We had now reached December and the winter brought its troubles for the club with the Bupa signing deadline approaching their was a split within the team on the issue, plus financially ICFC were having difficulties.  One or two players contamplated leaving although refrained from doing so.  Also during this time one of IC's biggest rivalries was begginning to develop and on the 10th of December came the crunch game against Meltham.  It ended all square at leeds Road after Kitterick had taken the lead Meltham equalised. 

A win followed in a tough encounter at Brighouse before the Huddlers were awarded three points by the league after ICFC had travelled to Elland to discover they had no pitches available.

Then in mid January came the start of the cup tail against Huddlers biggest rivals Meltham at home in one of the most exciting games of the season.  IC took the lead through Quinn before Meltham equalised from the spot.  The game went into extra time but no penalties were required as Bell vollied home from 25yards.

Adam Bell scored the winner in the cup against league championship rivals Meltham

The following week the Huddlers were on league duties at meltham in a tense affair and yet again the Bhoys battled through a difficult first half before coming back from 1-0 to win 2-1. A win and a draw came next against Beacon Rangers in the cup and Gildersome.

The Huddlers now had a sniff of the League Championship and for the first time they were clear at the top. 

But then came the first defeat in a 3-1 home defeat against Driglington were Quinn was sidelined for six weeks and only clarke could manage to pull a goal back in an attempt to rescue the Huddlers season.  Worries that they wouldn't bounce back were increased as they travelled to Ossett SB and were 3-0 down at the break but a fantastic second half display saw a turn around and goals from Kalinowski, Kitterick, Tattersley and Bell seasled a 4-3 victory. 

Then came the cup semi-final the Huddlers stormed home to a 4-1 win and faced first division now champions Osset Town in the final.  The Huddlers next game because of the bad weather wasn't for another month and it came against Ossett Town and the Huddlers were defeated for only the second time 1-0.  The following Thursday saw the cup seasled 1-0 by the Huddlers Kalinowski scored the goal before the defence was stretched to its maximum.  But they held out and the Huddlers clinched their first piece of silverware. 

With three games to go the Huddlers were closing in on the league and only needed four points, three they were awarded as cumberworth failed to raise a side.  Emley overturned IC in a controversial 2-1 defeat which meant the Huddlers had a difficult journey to beacon.  But they overcame any nerves and seasled a 8-0 victory and seasled a league and cup double. 

The stats for the season are as follows:

Name	Played	Goals (inc penalties)	Penalties	Own Goals	Yellow Cards	Red Cards
Adam Bell	21	19	1	0	4	0
Mark Booth	0	0	0	0	0	0
Donal Buggy	14	0	0	0	0	0
Simon Chatten	0	0	0	0	0	0
Michael Clarke	19	7	0	0	0	0
Robert Helliwell	22	2	0	0	0	0
Alex Kalinowski	9	5	0	0	0	0
Chris Keady	22	1	0	0	0	0
John-Paul Kitterick	21	7	0	0	0	0
Adam Kray Lunn	13	2	0	0	0	0
Phil Mann	20	2	0	0	0	0
Cashel McGowan	18	3	1	0	1	1
Miles O'Donnell	22	6	0	0	0	0
Paul Quinn	20	4	0	0	1	0
Brendan Shanahan	21	0	0	0	0	0
Matthew Tattersley	21	7	1	0	3	0
Damien Wood	21	0	0	0	1	0
Totals	284	65	3	0	10	1