After narrowly missing out on a quarter-final place in 2005, Tang only avoided relegation from the intermediate ranks last year by virtue of a one-point victory over Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall in their final group match. However, new manager Sean Burke is confident that their fortunes will improve in the season ahead. Since they last contested an intermediate football championship final in 2002, Tang have struggled to reach the same heights, and last year they were in grave danger of slipping back to the junior ranks until a last round victory over Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall kept them up, with Rosemount making the dreaded drop instead. Without a win going into the Finea game, Tang were prime relegation candidates but against the odds they achieved a 1-10 to 2-6 victory. The win would have been all in vain if Rosemount had beaten Milltownpass on the same day, but much to Tang's joy and relief, the once mighty black and ambers succumbed to a 0-12 to 1-12 defeat and were duly relegated to the junior grade for the first time since 1928. "We had to pull out all the stops to preserve our intermediate status last year," acknowledges Sean Burke, who was recently appointed as Tang's new manager in succession to Christy Flanagan. "I think we just about deserved to stay up because the lads had been unlucky in a couple of their previous championship matches. Ballymore beat them by a point in the first round and they had draws with Milltownpass and Rosemount as well. If they had taken full points from those games, they could have ended up in the knock-out stages rather than in a relegation battle." Longford native Burke, who has been involved with successful Maryland/Tang and Shannon Gaels underage teams in recent years, is hoping to oversee an improvement in Tang's fortunes this year with the help of his two selectors Denis Bannon and Anthony Gill. "The last thing we want is to be involved in a relegation dogfight again this year, so a big improvement will obviously be required. Our objective is to be in a quarter-final come next August or September. "There is plenty of potential in the team, but what we are probably lacking at the moment is a killer instinct. There were games last year which Tang dominated, but they couldn't turn their possession into scores. "I would take a lot of encouragement from the fact that we have a young team. With the exception of Paul Conway, Michael Bannon and one or two others, the rest of the lads are all under the age of 23. Robert English has been brought onto the county panel, so the talent is definitely there," he adds. A 0-8 to 0-9 defeat to Ballymore in their championship opener set the tone for a disappointing year for the Longford-border club. In a game which was always close but was lacking in quality, late points from Paddy Martin and substitute Liam Gilligan gave Ballymore victory by the narrowest of margins. Tang, who welcomed back former county star Paul Conway after a long injury lay-off, were left to rue their many wides, four of which came in the opening 10 minutes before Niall Bannon opened the scoring from a 20-metre free. Tang led by 0-3 to 0-2 at the break and extended their advantage shortly after the resumption. But after regaining parity with less than 10 minutes remaining, Ballymore finished the stronger to take the spoils. A second defeat followed against arch-rivals Maryland, but only after Tang had come from eight points down to almost snatch a dramatic victory. After an evenly contested opening period, Maryland scored two goals in quick succession to take a six-point lead into the break. Despite a great point from their captain Conway, Tang continued to play second fiddle to their neighbours until Denis Bannon converted a penalty to leave the minimum between the teams. Maryland restored their three-point advantage before Alan Higgins scored a second Tang goal with five minutes remaining to level the game. Two minutes later, Denis Bannon saw his shot come back off the post and Maryland quickly broke down the field to score the decisive goal. Damien and James Reynolds added a pair of points to give Maryland a somewhat flattering 3-11 to 2-9 win. Christy Flanagan's charges picked up their first point of the campaign when drawing 0-11 apiece with Milltownpass at Castletown-Geoghegan. The game was effectively a shoot-out between respective free-takers Robert English and Emmet Brennan who scored 0-12 between them. David Wright looked to have given Milltownpass the win when he put them in front with time almost up, but Tang salvaged a draw thanks to a last-gasp free from Paul Conway. A second draw with Rosemount (0-12 to 1-9) put paid to Tang's hopes of reaching the knock-out stages and left the threat of relegation hanging over both clubs. On a warm, humid evening for football, Tang were the most disappointed not to have collected full points. They led by three points at one stage in the first half before falling 0-5 to 0-6 in arrears at half-time. Within 20 seconds of the restart, Paul Conway powered through the Rosemount defence to bring the sides level and they had surged into a four-point lead by the 54th minute thanks to scores from Denis Bannon (two), John Lennon, Conway and Niall Bannon. However, Stephen Darcy then pounced for a goal to bring Rosemount back into it before Darcy and David Tone combined to set up Cathal Keane for the equalizing point in the final minute. The maroon and whites were plunged into deeper trouble when they suffered their second defeat of the campaign to a PJ Ward-inspired Kilbeggan Shamrocks. Ward shot 0-9, including 0-8 from play, as Tang slipped to a 1-9 to 0-14 defeat. Kilbeggan led by 0-7 to 0-4 at the end of a first half which saw two Tang penalty claims turned down. On the restart, Tang reduced the gap to two points before Tommy McCormack finished to the net to give them the lead. Kilbeggan levelled through Chris Lynch, only for Tang to regain the lead with points from Denis Bannon and McCormack. But just when it seemed the Longford-border outfit were on their way to their first championship win of the year, Ward took centre stage to fire Kilbeggan to victory. The odds were now firmly stacked against Tang retaining their intermediate status, but a long overdue victory over Castletown-Finea/Coole/Whitehall, combined with Rosemount's loss to Milltownpass, saw them perform a remarkable Houdini act. Though they had just a point to spare over their north county opponents, Tang were in control for much of the game with Finea's second goal coming from a last-minute penalty. A Niall Bannon goal gave Tang the perfect start and, although Niall Kilcoyne replied with a similar score for Finea, Christy Flanagan's charges led by 1-5 to 1-2 at the interval. Tang restarted with three unanswered points per Alan Higgins, Paul Conway and Robert English before Finea replied with three unanswered points of their own between the 51st and 57th minutes. Substitute Michael Tumelty marked his arrival with a fisted point which, in hindsight, was critical to Tang's survival as Gary Sullivan's late, late penalty left the minimum in it at full-time. Whatever about the present, the future certainly looks rosy for Tang after another successful year at underage level. The highlight was undoubtedly Shannon Gaels' capture of the under 16 'premier' football title following a 1-13 to 3-6 extra-time victory over St. Loman's in the final at Pairc Chiarain, Athlone in mid-November.amrocks (after a replay), Clann Braonain and St. Finian's. They looked down and out when they trailed St. Loman's by a whopping 10 points, 3-3 to 0-2, at half-time, but a splendid second half recovery, which included a Ciaran Egan goal, saw the southerners force extra-time. St. Loman's led by the midway point of extra-time but after Ian Coffey had levelled, Owen Harney wrote himself into the history books by landing the winning point. In 2004, Tang/Maryland won the under 14 'premier' championship and last year the club fielded another strong team at this level. However, despite contesting three finals, they finished the year empty-handed. "They lost the championship and Feile finals to St. Loman's, and were also narrowly beaten by St. Malachy's/Ballinagore in the league final," Sean recalls. "Hopefully they'll have better luck at under 16 level in the next year or two." Tang can take further encouragement from the achievements of the local primary school in 2006. As well as retaining the Cumann na mBunscol 4-teacher title, Tang National School also won the Mini-Sevens competition. 2007 promises to be a big year for Tang on the development front with plans afoot to install new floodlighting and a walking track at Joe Fox Memorial Park. "Our aim is to provide the best facilities possible for our players and all our members," Sean concludes. The Shannon Gaels team that captured the under 16 'premier' football championship was: Trevor English; Eoin Slevin, Trevor Farrell, Joe Reilly; Darren Malynn, Ronan Farrell, Kenneth Kincaid; Sean Egan, Robert Buckley; Kieran Martin, Aidan Burke, Owen Harney; Ian Coffey, Ciaran Egan, Daniel Sammon. Subs used: Callum McCormack and Shane McLoughlin. Tweet

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