A number of factors conspired against Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall making their presence felt in last year's intermediate football championship, according to tigerish wing back Ray Sheridan. Touted as dark horses to win last year's intermediate football championship, Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall failed to live up to expectations with their interests not extending beyond the group stages. After reaching the quarter-finals in 2002, the county's most northerly club looked capable of progressing even further in last year's championship. But an opening round defeat to Tang set the tone for the remainder of the campaign. "To say that we were disappointed with the way things went last year would be an understatement," says highly-rated wing back Ray Sheridan. "We had promised a lot after performing so well the previous year, but we never really got out of the starting blocks. In 2002, we got the rub of the green in a good few of our games, but that seemed to be missing last year." Good fortune wasn't the only ingredient missing from the Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall mix in 2003, however. According to Sheridan, they were beset by a variety of problems. "Our biggest problem was that the players didn't give the same commitment as in the previous year," he admits. "Our manager Jim Mahon was as enthusiastic as ever, but unfortunately the same couldn't be said for some of the players. I'm convinced that one of the reasons why lads didn't give it 100 per cent is because the facilities in Finea just aren't up to scratch. We're depending on Ringtown and Castlepollard for the use of their pitches for training and it's very hard to make progress when you have a situation like that. "Also last year, we had a lot of injury problems which weakened the team considerably. Thomas McGlynn, Danny McDermott and Eamonn Callaghan missed most of the year through injury, while Ronan Doolin and Colin Farrell were also unavailable to us. The fact that Castlepollard also had a good year in the hurling meant that football took a backseat with some of the lads," the Athlone IT student adds. The Cavan-border outfit opened their championship campaign with a 0-8 to 1-7 defeat at the hands of Tang in Ballynacargy. The teams were tied on 0-4 apiece at half-time, but Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall would have been well in control had they taken either of two great goalscoring chances while playing against the wind. The game's decisive score came eight minutes after the restart when Alan Higgins beat Castletown-Finea goalkeeper Keith Thompson with a low shot. Jim Mahon's side tried desperately to find a way back into the game, but Tang hung on for the win. Against Shandonagh in their second game, Castletown-Finea suffered another setback when they were beaten on a 0-6 to 1-13 scoreline. But their hopes of reaching the knock-out stages were revived when they overcame Killucan by 1-9 to 1-6. The green and golds held a one-point lead at the interval and while Killucan scored two points without reply on the restart, a Keith Thompson goal helped to turn the tide in Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall's favour. Castletown-Finea joy turned to despair three days later when they suffered a crushing 0-7 to 2-14 defeat at the hands of Milltownpass. The losers had been greatly unsettled by the withdrawals of Graham Plunkett and Darren McCormack at the eleventh hour, while the unavailability of Gary Sullivan meant that Keith Thompson - who had impressed in attack against Killucan - had to revert back to goalkeeping duties. And as if that wasn't bad enough, both Christy Fanning and Kevin Brazil picked up injuries in the first half. Despite receiving a walkover from St. Loman's, Castletown-Finea knew before they played Bunbrosna in their final group game that they couldn't make the knock-out stages. Despite this, they put up a brave fight before succumbing to a 1-7 to 1-11 defeat. In previous years, Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall may have faced a relegation play-off, but a county board decision to regrade the second string teams of Athlone, Mullingar Shamrocks and St. Loman's to junior level meant that such was avoided. "There was talk of a relegation play-off after we lost to Bunbrosna, but thankfully it didn't come to that," recalls Sheridan, who captained the county minor team in 2002 and was a key member of the Inny Gaels team that won back-to-back minor championships in 2001 and 2002. "We played poorly in all of our championship matches with the exception of the game against Killucan. Ironically, that was the only time all year that we fielded something remotely close to our strongest team." To compound matters, Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall also surrendered their All-County League Division 3 status - just 12 months after they had narrowly missed out on promotion to Division 2. It's possible that they would have avoided relegation had they not conceded walkovers to Mullingar Shamrocks and Castledaly. "We would have given ourselves a better chance of staying up if we had played those games," Sheridan acknowledges. "The Shamrocks game was fixed for a Wednesday evening which didn't suit us because we had a lot of lads sitting exams at the time. We were due to play Castledaly at some stage in November, but it's not easy to get fellas to play at that time of the year, especially as we had been out of the championship since July." Shandonagh put paid to Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall's Intermediate Cup hopes at the semi-final stage. The game did, however, mark the return of full back Eamonn Callaghan and midfielder Ronan Doolin after lengthy absences. For the first time in a number of years, Castletown-Finea failed to win a championship at underage level. Big things were expected of the club's under 21 team, but a defeat to Tyrrellspass ended their interests. The minors went to the county semi-final where they were stopped in their tracks by a Milltownpass/St. Mary's combination. Despite last year's disappointments, Sheridan is confident that Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall will give a much better account of themselves in the coming season. "Last year was a bit of a disaster and I think we can only improve in the year ahead. Most of the lads who missed last year are available to us once again and we also have another batch of excellent young players coming through, including Aaron Corrigan, William Coyne and Anthony Cafferty. "The fact that Jim Mahon has decided to stay on as manager is a big boost to us also. It proves that he still has a lot of faith in us, despite our poor form last year. Padraig Cullen is going to be helping out with the training and I'm sure he'll get a huge response from everyone," he concludes. Tweet

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