After a disappointing 2003, Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall showed a welcome return to form last year when achieving league promotion and also reaching the knock-out stages of the intermediate championship. There was also noteworthy successes at underage level which were a source of great encouragement to county player Daniel McDermott. What a difference a year makes! Twelve months ago, Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall were licking their wounds after a dismal championship campaign and relegation to Division 4 of the All-County League. But the county's most northerly club showed something close to their true form last season when achieving league promotion and also qualifying for the quarter-finals of the intermediate championship where they suffered a narrow defeat to Rosemount. And with players from the club making handsome contributions to the successes enjoyed by St. Michael's and Inny Gaels at under 16 level, the picture looks a whole lot brighter than it did a year ago. "I suppose you could say that we made up on the ground that was lost in 2003," says county player Daniel McDermott. "After reaching the intermediate championship quarter-final in 2002 and coming within a whisker of getting promoted to Division 2, we had high hopes for 2003. But we had a terrible run and last year was all about making amends. "Thankfully our results were much improved with promotion from Division 4 being the obvious highlight. I'd like to think that we're now back on track and will be pushing for intermediate championship honours in the coming year." Promotion back to Division 3 was a minimum requirement for Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall and it was achieved courtesy of an unbeaten campaign. "The only slip-up we had was drawing with St. Paul's in our first game. We won the rest of our league games which ensured us of a quick return to Division 3. In one of our games against Garrycastle, we trailed by 10 points at half-time but we came storming back in the second half to win by a couple of points," the 2000 Leinster minor medallist recalls. The signs looked ominous for the Cavan-border outfit when they lost their opening game of the intermediate championship to Shandonagh by 1-11 to 3-15. The game was effectively over as a contest after 20 minutes, by which time Shandonagh had built up a 2-6 to 0-1 lead. Castletown-Finea battled back to trail by 0-6 to 2-9 at the interval but despite adding 1-5 in the second half, still succumbed to a heavy defeat. Jim Mahon's charges showed a big improvement to defeat Killucan by 4-6 to 1-10 in their second outing in mid-July. Killucan made the better start but the green and golds improved as the first half wore on and went on to lead by three points at the interval thanks to a goal from Ollie Gaffney on the stroke of half-time. A second goal from Gaffney just after the restart gave Castletown-Finea a six-point cushion, but they were guilty of sitting on their lead and with 10 minutes remaining, Killucan were back on level terms. However, a brace of late goals from Kevin Brazil and Martin Egan saw Castletown-Finea take the spoils. After a seven-week break due to the exploits of the county team, the north county outfit marked their return to championship action with an excellent 3-10 to 1-11 victory over Kilbeggan Shamrocks at Springfield. Castletown-Finea got off to a flying start with Ryan Plunkett and Kevin Brazil notching early points, but Kilbeggan then hit a purple patch which yielded 1-6 to take a firm grip on proceedings. However, a Mark Brady goal and further points from Brazil and Plunkett's left just the minimum, 1-5 to 1-6, between the sides at the break. The second half began as the first half ended with Plunkett grabbing a second goal. Another Kilbeggan rally brought them level with five minutes remaining, but Castletown-Finea finished strongly with a third goal from Keith Thompson helping them to a five-point win. Against Caulry in their fourth outing, Castletown-Finea suffered a heartbreaking 2-7 to 3-6 defeat when they conceded a goal directly from a free in injury-time. At the end of a low-scoring first half, Jim Mahon's side led by 0-2 to 0-1 and looked odds on for victory when goals from Kevin Brazil and Mark Brady stretched their lead to 2-3 to 0-2 early in the second half. But Caulry staged a great comeback which culminated in Gary Flanagan's rather fortuitous goal from a long-range free. Castletown-Finea regained winning ways when they accounted for Ballynacargy by 2-14 to 2-11 at St. Loman's. They laid the foundations for victory in the first half when goals from Ryan Plunkett and Martin Egan helped them to a commanding 2-9 to 0-5 interval lead. But just as Caulry had done in the previous round, Ballynacargy came back strongly in the second half and had reduced the deficit to the minimum before two late points from Eric Sullivan ended their comeback hopes. A fourth win was secured when a last-gasp goal from substitute Ollie Gaffney saw Castletown-Finea overcome Maryland by 3-5 to 0-12. The other goals were scored by Martin Egan and Kevin Brazil. Castletown-Finea made sure of their place in the knock-out stages when a late free from goalkeeper Keith Thompson (he had played outfield earlier in the campaign) earned them a 0-6 each draw with Tang in their final group match at The Downs. The green and golds were the better side overall, but they almost paid the price for kicking 15 wides. In 2002, Castletown-Finea's championship interests were ended at the quarter-final stage by Rosemount and history was to repeat itself on October 17 last when they lost to the black and ambers on a 1-8 to 1-10 scoreline. The first half was a tepid affair as Castletown-Finea recovered from a 0-2 to 0-4 deficit to lead by 0-5 to 0-4 at the interval. A fisted goal from Alan Brady stretched the northerners' advantage to 1-6 to 0-5 and they were still four points to the good with a quarter of an hour remaining. But following the sending off of goal-scorer Brady in the 48th minute, Castletown-Finea lost their way somewhat and after a Danny Fielding goal had brought Rosemount onto level terms, they clinched victory with two late points from Martin Loddick. "It was a good achievement to reach the quarter-final, but I would like to have gone further," says McDermott, who is a law student at NUIG. "I'm convinced we would have beaten Rosemount if a couple of factors hadn't conspired against us. I also think we would have given St. Mary's a good rattle in the semi-final if we had got that far. "But overall it was a good year. Jim Mahon did a great job as manager and he received excellent assistance from Padraig Cullen who did the physical work with us. Jim has since stepped down but he leaves the club in a healthy state." The achievements of the St. Michael's and Inny Gaels under 16 combination sides also augurs well for the future of the club. St. Michael's, who are a combination of Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall and Ballycomoyle, captured the Club 2 title following a 2-11 to 1-11 victory over Moate All-Whites at Rochfortbridge at the end of June. St. Michael's were well on their way when leading by 2-8 to 1-4 at half-time after Alan Devine and Neil Sammon both found the net. Later in the year, St. Michael's players backboned the Inny Gaels team which blitzed St. Brigid's on a 6-8 to 1-10 scoreline in an entertaining 'premier' championship final at St. Loman's. The north county amalgamation never looked back after quick-fire goals from Jamie Shaw and Emmett Ferrick helped them to a 2-1 to 0-0 lead after just five minutes. "It's great to see the underage teams doing so well," notes McDermott, who won minor championship medals himself with Inny Gaels in 2000 and 2001. "I can remember when I first started playing underage football with Castletown-Finea going down to play the likes of Mullingar Shamrocks and St. Loman's and getting hammered. But that's not the case any longer and it's clubs like ourselves and Bunbrosna who are now producing the best young players in the county. "When you see fellas like Niall Kilcoyne and Eanna Doolin coming through from the under 16 ranks, it gives you a lot of hope for the future. We should have a strong panel over the next few years and I'll be very disappointed if we don't win an intermediate championship in that time." McDermott is hoping that Castletown-Finea will continue to show progress in the year ahead. "Our main priority will be to get through to the knock-out stages of the championship again and maybe go a bit further than we did last year. We also hope to get promotion from Division 3, something we narrowly missed out on a couple of years ago," he concludes. The Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall team which lined out against Rosemount in the IFC quarter-final was: Keith Thompson; Eamon Callaghan, Dermot Cafferty, Colin Farrell; Ray Sheridan, Christy Fanning, William Coyne; Daniel McDermott, Eric Sullivan; Graham Plunkett, Ronan Doolin, Ollie Gaffney; Ryan Plunkett, Kevin Brazil, Alan Brady. Sub used: Michael Reynolds. Tweet

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