Non-League and Academy football writer

London Hibernian FC’s step 8 Saturday team play in the Surrey South Eastern Combination Intermediate Division One. A club from Southwest London, who were formed in 2021, as a result of UCC Diaspora and Tooting Celtic (both clubs who had  a lot of Irish expat players) combining to form London Hibs. In their debut season at step 8, the club that has two Saturday teams (with one of their Saturday sides playing in the Wimbledon and District Football League) would impressively finish in fourth place in the Surrey South Eastern Combination Intermediate Division One. The club who won the 2021/22 London FA Saturday Junior Cup, are a real community club. A lot of their players are Irish expats, although not all of their players are Irish. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing both Gavin Falconer (club secretary) and Denis O’Mahony (club chairman), to learn more about the club. Both Gavin and Denis are also players for London Hibernian.

London Hibernian are always on the lookout for players, so if players are interested in potentially joining the club, then do contact them via their various social media accounts.

London Hibernian’s Instagram account is: londonhibernianfc

Their Facebook account is: London Hibernian FC

The club’s X account is: @ LondonHibernian 

How did the idea of London Hibernian FC come about? And when were they formed as a club?

Gavin: So a lot of people who are now at the club, were initially at UCC Diaspora, which was basically an Irish expat team that started in 2010. They were formed by a number of guys who had attended UCC in Cork, Ireland. A lot of those players would’ve played together in Cork, but later moved over to London and wanted to create an 11-a-side Saturday club, having played five-a-side football over here. So they held trials for the club, and eventually there were three teams for a while, which then went down to two teams. In the 2017/18 season UCC were just one team, which competed in the Wimbledon & District Premier League. We won that league a couple of times, and we also won the league cup a couple of times, as well as getting to some London Junior Cup finals.

After the Covid seasons we basically wanted to change the name of the club, and there was also another team in London, which was called Tooting Celtic. Some of the lads knew each other, and so we approached them saying that we were going to rebrand to London Hibernian, to make the club more inclusive, so it wasn’t just a UCC thing. So having amalgamated with Tooting Celtic, this is now our third season just gone, as London Hibernian. We had a Saturday team, which played in the Wimbledon & District Premier League, and also a Sunday team. 

Last season we stepped up to the Surrey South Eastern Combination Intermediate Division One, as well as entering a team in the league below us (the Wimbledon & District Championship). That team amazingly managed to get promoted to the Premier League last season. We’ve got a lot of Irish expats in our team, but we have a Moldovan player playing for us, and other players from different countries who play for us. We do still get people messaging us through word of mouth, from people moving over from Ireland, who have been told about our team. So if you want to play a really good standard of football in southwest London, with a good group of lads, then we want to be the team that people want to join.

We’ve really grown as a club in the last couple of years, and so it’s been a good start for London Hibernian.

What did you make of the most recent 2023/24 season for London Hibernian’s Saturday team, in the Surrey South Eastern Combination Intermediate Division One?

Gavin: So we decided to make the step up into this league, for the beginning of last season. We had been thinking about it for a year or two, and we eventually decided to step up into the league. For me the standard of the league is brilliant, and it’s probably a lot higher a jump than we even thought that it would be. The standard across the board is just really, really good, and even the teams who finished towards the bottom of the league last season are still really good teams. 

For London Hibernian personally, we didn’t really know what to expect. We knew that entering the league would be a step up, and we finished in fourth place in the league last season, but we had a tough season with injuries. So all in all it was good for us to play different teams, as we’d been playing the same teams for a long while, before entering this league. So last season was a really good building block and hopefully we can build on that next season. Our aim next season is to win the league, and to ultimately get promoted to the Surrey Premier League, for the following season.

What did you make of the 2023/24 Surrey South Eastern Combination Intermediate Division One season as a whole?

Gavin: From a Surrey standpoint we had come across Earlsfield before, as they’d had a team in our league previously, and so we knew some of those guys. The standard of the league last season was very, very good. The league champions Banstead Rovers are a very good team, but across the board it’s a very good league. Every game is a battle in that league, and there’s not a lot of games that are won by a lot of goals, instead games are won by the odd goal, which is what we want, as we want to be in a very competitive league. We really enjoyed last season, and also the league is run amazingly.

Who would you say was the most difficult team that you faced last season, in 2023/24:

Gavin: I think that a lot of people will mention Banstead Rovers who did go on to win the league, but we’ve had a lot of different games which had their own challenges, where teams are really tough to break down. But for me I would have to say that Banstead Rovers, as the most difficult team that we faced last season.

Denis: I’d agree with Gavin on that. Last year there was a real change at stepping up to the league, plus we also changed our home ground, moving from playing on a grass pitch, to playing on Astro, week in week out. So we ended up with a lot of injuries last year, and so generally we rarely had the same team week to week. I’d say that a lot of the lads would point to the Banstead game, which were probably our toughest challenges of the season. But there aren’t any easy games in this league, and if you look at the results it’s often between one or two goals. 

For those who haven’t seen London Hibernian play, how would you describe their style of football?

Gavin: We try and play football, and we try to get the ball down and play. Sometimes we play try and play football too much to our detriment, but we’ve got good players who do play, so that’s why we like to play on the ground, rather than being a route one team.

Denis: One of our criticisms in games is that we always like to attack, and so we always look to go forward on the pitch. In the lower leagues we’d scored a lot of goals, which was something that stepping up we did find a little bit hard to adjust to. But we’re an attacking and fast paced side. 

What have been some of the standout memories of the club, since London Hibernian entered the non-League pyramid?

Gavin: I’d say just the standard of the league (last season) itself, as regardless of who you played in the league last season, the league matches were just so competitive. You come out of every game thinking what a hard fought game that was.

Denis: The highlight of the season for most of the lads was beating Banstead Rovers 3-0, and if you look at their record last season, it was just brilliant for us to be able to play them, as we got to experience the real step up in level. The group of lads who played for us last season really did us proud as a club, in the way that they performed last season in matches. We were going into games with lads who were at 60/70% fitness, and so it’s just a credit to them just how well we did last season.

We’re still a little while away from next season starting for London Hibernian FC, but what are some of your hopes for next season?

Gavin: I’d say for us that we’ve been in this league for one season now, and apart from Banstead going up there will be other teams going into the league. But I think that last season really gave us an idea of what the league is about, and also the standard of it. I think that if we’d had a better start to last season then we could have even made a better go at maybe even going up last season. I think that for us we could potentially get promoted next season, and also hopefully go on a good cup run as well, like we did in the London Saturday Junior Cup, in the 2021/22 season. We’re also always looking for players who want to join us or who have just moved to London.

Denis: We lost a big amount of our previous squad, when we decided to make the step up to step 8 football. So regarding next season we do have to see where we are in August/September with who we have available to the squad, but we see the squad regularly, as we’re really good friends as well as teammates. The goal would be to finish as high in the league as possible, and last season was the first season in London Hibs’ history, that we didn’t win a trophy in. So the goal is to finish as high as possible in the league and to also ideally finish with a trophy.

Step 7 side Camden & Islington United were a team that you faced in the London Saturday Junior Cup, last season. What was it like to play them in that competition?

Denis: We lost to them on penalties in that competition, and I would say that it was literally a game of two halves. They were the better team in the first half, but I though that we were the better team in the second half, and we scored late on and we could’ve even got the winner during the latter stages of the game. We were obviously then beaten on penalties by them, but it was just a really good game of football, and they’re a really good team. We always thought that it would be one of us who would go on to eventually reach the final of last season’s competition. 

Camden & Islington are a really good footballing side and their number ten (Ryan Pickles) was quality when we played against them.

Gavin: Camden & Islington are not just really good on the pitch, but the community that they’ve created is very, very impressive. We actually had one of their players who moved to south London, and he joined us, and he had such great things to say about them as a club.

What are some of the club’s hopes/aims for the future in non-League football?

Denis: I’m very much at the end of my playing career, whereas Gavin still has a couple of years left of playing football at this level. But from my perspective I’d like to see longevity. I’ve been the chairman of the club for the last two years, and the next steps for me would be to see how the club can continue to run in the future, and starting to see new lads come through the club. We were formed on the back of an old club that was struggling to attract players, and ultimately we don’t want to see the same thing happen to this club. We want new people to come through the club, and for me it’s all about the longevity of the club. We’re hoping to build a community for people to come down to, whether they’re playing or not.

So for me the long term thing is for London Hibernian to still be operating in the next couple of years.

London Hibernian FC’s step 8 Saturday team play in the Surrey South Eastern Combination Intermediate Division One. A club from Southwest London, who were formed in 2021, as a result of UCC Diaspora and Tooting Celtic (both clubs who had  a lot of Irish expat players) combining to form London Hibs. In their debut season at step 8, the club that has two Saturday teams (with one of their Saturday sides playing in the Wimbledon and District Football League) would impressively finish in fourth place in the Surrey South Eastern Combination Intermediate Division One. The club who won the 2021/22 London FA Saturday Junior Cup, are a real community club. A lot of their players are Irish expats, although not all of their players are Irish. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing both Gavin Falconer (club secretary) and Denis O’Mahony (club chairman), to learn more about the club. Both Gavin and Denis are also players for London Hibernian.

London Hibernian are always on the lookout for players, so if players are interested in potentially joining the club, then do contact them via their various social media accounts.

London Hibernian’s Instagram account is: londonhibernianfc

Their Facebook account is: London Hibernian FC

The club’s X account is: @ LondonHibernian 

How did the idea of London Hibernian FC come about? And when were they formed as a club?

Gavin: So a lot of people who are now at the club, were initially at UCC Diaspora, which was basically an Irish expat team that started in 2010. They were formed by a number of guys who had attended UCC in Cork, Ireland. A lot of those players would’ve played together in Cork, but later moved over to London and wanted to create an 11-a-side Saturday club, having played five-a-side football over here. So they held trials for the club, and eventually there were three teams for a while, which then went down to two teams. In the 2017/18 season UCC were just one team, which competed in the Wimbledon & District Premier League. We won that league a couple of times, and we also won the league cup a couple of times, as well as getting to some London Junior Cup finals.

After the Covid seasons we basically wanted to change the name of the club, and there was also another team in London, which was called Tooting Celtic. Some of the lads knew each other, and so we approached them saying that we were going to rebrand to London Hibernian, to make the club more inclusive, so it wasn’t just a UCC thing. So having amalgamated with Tooting Celtic, this is now our third season just gone, as London Hibernian. We had a Saturday team, which played in the Wimbledon & District Premier League, and also a Sunday team. 

Last season we stepped up to the Surrey South Eastern Combination Intermediate Division One, as well as entering a team in the league below us (the Wimbledon & District Championship). That team amazingly managed to get promoted to the Premier League last season. We’ve got a lot of Irish expats in our team, but we have a Moldovan player playing for us, and other players from different countries who play for us. We do still get people messaging us through word of mouth, from people moving over from Ireland, who have been told about our team. So if you want to play a really good standard of football in southwest London, with a good group of lads, then we want to be the team that people want to join.

We’ve really grown as a club in the last couple of years, and so it’s been a good start for London Hibernian.

What did you make of the most recent 2023/24 season for London Hibernian’s Saturday team, in the Surrey South Eastern Combination Intermediate Division One?

Gavin: So we decided to make the step up into this league, for the beginning of last season. We had been thinking about it for a year or two, and we eventually decided to step up into the league. For me the standard of the league is brilliant, and it’s probably a lot higher a jump than we even thought that it would be. The standard across the board is just really, really good, and even the teams who finished towards the bottom of the league last season are still really good teams. 

For London Hibernian personally, we didn’t really know what to expect. We knew that entering the league would be a step up, and we finished in fourth place in the league last season, but we had a tough season with injuries. So all in all it was good for us to play different teams, as we’d been playing the same teams for a long while, before entering this league. So last season was a really good building block and hopefully we can build on that next season. Our aim next season is to win the league, and to ultimately get promoted to the Surrey Premier League, for the following season.

What did you make of the 2023/24 Surrey South Eastern Combination Intermediate Division One season as a whole?

Gavin: From a Surrey standpoint we had come across Earlsfield before, as they’d had a team in our league previously, and so we knew some of those guys. The standard of the league last season was very, very good. The league champions Banstead Rovers are a very good team, but across the board it’s a very good league. Every game is a battle in that league, and there’s not a lot of games that are won by a lot of goals, instead games are won by the odd goal, which is what we want, as we want to be in a very competitive league. We really enjoyed last season, and also the league is run amazingly.

Who would you say was the most difficult team that you faced last season, in 2023/24:

Gavin: I think that a lot of people will mention Banstead Rovers who did go on to win the league, but we’ve had a lot of different games which had their own challenges, where teams are really tough to break down. But for me I would have to say that Banstead Rovers, as the most difficult team that we faced last season.

Denis: I’d agree with Gavin on that. Last year there was a real change at stepping up to the league, plus we also changed our home ground, moving from playing on a grass pitch, to playing on Astro, week in week out. So we ended up with a lot of injuries last year, and so generally we rarely had the same team week to week. I’d say that a lot of the lads would point to the Banstead game, which were probably our toughest challenges of the season. But there aren’t any easy games in this league, and if you look at the results it’s often between one or two goals. 

For those who haven’t seen London Hibernian play, how would you describe their style of football?

Gavin: We try and play football, and we try to get the ball down and play. Sometimes we play try and play football too much to our detriment, but we’ve got good players who do play, so that’s why we like to play on the ground, rather than being a route one team.

Denis: One of our criticisms in games is that we always like to attack, and so we always look to go forward on the pitch. In the lower leagues we’d scored a lot of goals, which was something that stepping up we did find a little bit hard to adjust to. But we’re an attacking and fast paced side. 

What have been some of the standout memories of the club, since London Hibernian entered the non-League pyramid?

Gavin: I’d say just the standard of the league (last season) itself, as regardless of who you played in the league last season, the league matches were just so competitive. You come out of every game thinking what a hard fought game that was.

Denis: The highlight of the season for most of the lads was beating Banstead Rovers 3-0, and if you look at their record last season, it was just brilliant for us to be able to play them, as we got to experience the real step up in level. The group of lads who played for us last season really did us proud as a club, in the way that they performed last season in matches. We were going into games with lads who were at 60/70% fitness, and so it’s just a credit to them just how well we did last season.

We’re still a little while away from next season starting for London Hibernian FC, but what are some of your hopes for next season?

Gavin: I’d say for us that we’ve been in this league for one season now, and apart from Banstead going up there will be other teams going into the league. But I think that last season really gave us an idea of what the league is about, and also the standard of it. I think that if we’d had a better start to last season then we could have even made a better go at maybe even going up last season. I think that for us we could potentially get promoted next season, and also hopefully go on a good cup run as well, like we did in the London Saturday Junior Cup, in the 2021/22 season. We’re also always looking for players who want to join us or who have just moved to London.

Denis: We lost a big amount of our previous squad, when we decided to make the step up to step 8 football. So regarding next season we do have to see where we are in August/September with who we have available to the squad, but we see the squad regularly, as we’re really good friends as well as teammates. The goal would be to finish as high in the league as possible, and last season was the first season in London Hibs’ history, that we didn’t win a trophy in. So the goal is to finish as high as possible in the league and to also ideally finish with a trophy.

Step 7 side Camden & Islington United were a team that you faced in the London Saturday Junior Cup, last season. What was it like to play them in that competition?

Denis: We lost to them on penalties in that competition, and I would say that it was literally a game of two halves. They were the better team in the first half, but I though that we were the better team in the second half, and we scored late on and we could’ve even got the winner during the latter stages of the game. We were obviously then beaten on penalties by them, but it was just a really good game of football, and they’re a really good team. We always thought that it would be one of us who would go on to eventually reach the final of last season’s competition. 

Camden & Islington are a really good footballing side and their number ten (Ryan Pickles) was quality when we played against them.

Gavin: Camden & Islington are not just really good on the pitch, but the community that they’ve created is very, very impressive. We actually had one of their players who moved to south London, and he joined us, and he had such great things to say about them as a club.

What are some of the club’s hopes/aims for the future in non-League football?

Denis: I’m very much at the end of my playing career, whereas Gavin still has a couple of years left of playing football at this level. But from my perspective I’d like to see longevity. I’ve been the chairman of the club for the last two years, and the next steps for me would be to see how the club can continue to run in the future, and starting to see new lads come through the club. We were formed on the back of an old club that was struggling to attract players, and ultimately we don’t want to see the same thing happen to this club. We want new people to come through the club, and for me it’s all about the longevity of the club. We’re hoping to build a community for people to come down to, whether they’re playing or not.

So for me the long term thing is for London Hibernian to still be operating in the next couple of years.