Kings again!
December 31, 2010they were capable of when they broke Cavan Gaels' stronghold on the Oliver Plunkett Cup to end a
17-year wait. By Shane Corrigan
September 26, 2010 - you can put it down as a landmark date for Kingscourt Stars GAA and one that saw the power in Cavan club football shift out east from Cavan town towards the Meath border.
After watching their team upset all the odds, the Kingscourt crowd emptied from the stand and terraces at Kingspan Breffni Park to congratulate their 'Stars' and team captain Alan Clarke stood up on the podium and described the feeling as "absolutely unbelievable", having just received the big prize from former county board chairman and fellow clubman Philip Smith. Chairman, and former stalwart of the club, Pat Faulkner says he will never forget the moment.
"We were just thrilled when that whistle went," Pat put it simply. "I've been around a while and been at a few county finals and that one was as good as any final I was ever at. It was great for all the players and supporters and hopefully we can do the same next year and retain the title."
All expectations had been surpassed. Few had predicted at the start of the year that a side who had only announced their arrival back in the top tier from Division Two would end up four-point winners over the seemingly unstoppable Cavan Gaels, whom were on their own quest for a four-in-a-row of Cavan SFC triumphs.
However, there were at least 30 Kingscourt men who believed Dudley Farrell when he laid down his championship objectives for the team, and they had no reason not to. The Nobber man's record with the Stars up to that point had been close to flawless. When he took over in 2008 the team, amazingly, were on a slope towards relegation to Division Three. They stayed safe and the following year Kingscourt were Division Two champions, with an unbeaten league record intact, but they had exited in the group stages of the senior championship minus the services of a few key players.
The chairman explained: "In 2008, we were going through a bad run in Division Two and we decided that a change in the club was needed. Jim McGovern was chairman at the time and Dudley Farrell came in. Paddy Bates was manager at the time and had no problem stepping down, because it wasn't his fault. It was just that some of the players hadn't been fully committed and the team was in a rut.
"We had two games against Shercock and Ballymachugh that we needed to win to avoid relegation and Dudley came in for them. We won both games and thankfully it kept us safe."
The next year promotion to Division One followed for the Stars, but they failed to place their sizzling form on the championship stage. Therefore 2010 would be taken one game at a time by Farrell and co.
"We hadn't the ambitions going into the start of the year that we ended up with," said Pat. "Things just moved on and we ended up in a league semi-final and championship final by September.
"We came up from Division Two and we have actually only been beaten once in two years of league football. Cavan Gaels beat us half-way through the league this year by 0-21 to 0-7 and that really opened our eyes. We learned far more from that defeat than the Gaels would have and I think it was a real turning-point in our year."
Despite their promotion to the higher ranks, Kingscourt had maintained their 100 per cent league record before they visited Terry Coyle Park at the start of June. In the meantime Lacken, Denn, Lavey, Killygarry, Killeshandra and Ramor were all teams to fall on the Kingscourt sword as the team's season gathered pace. Big wins over Ballinagh (3-12 to 1-9) and Redhills (0-17 to 0-4) turned heads across the county to Kingscourt's form, but they slipped back under the radar when the champions handed them a 14-point trouncing the next day out.
Even the proudest Kingscourt man would have admitted that the team were completely outclassed that afternoon at Terry Coyle Park.
"The league didn't start until April and Dudley didn't bring the lads back to training until the end of February and it was a great help. They were a lot fresher by the time the league started than they would have been had they started training in January like other teams," Pat insisted.
"We got a few early wins and were unbeaten going into the Cavan Gaels game. That was about seven or eight games in and we were taught a lesson in football by the Gaels that day in Terry Coyle Park. We beat Ballinagh by a few points after and beat a weakened Redhills day the next day out, which brought us into the championship with only one defeat."
Confidence was certainly high in the Kingscourt camp ahead of their championship opener against Cuchullains at the end of July. The Stars entered the game as the form team in the county, but would eventually succumb to two goals from Shane Smith and Conor Smith, which handed the Mullagh men a surprise 2-9 to 1-11 victory.
The defeat left Kingscourt needing wins over Blackwater Gaels and Redhills to assure themselves a place in the quarter-finals. The Stars had minimum fuss in seeing off the Munterconnacht/Mountnugent amalgamation, as they got their campaign back on track through a rousing 1-18 to 0-7 win, with ace forwards Barry Reilly and Ryan McCormack combining for 0-13 and Philip Smith striking the first-half goal, which set-up a make-or-break clash with Redhills at Kingspan Breffni Park.
Kingscourt were in control from start to finish and it was a brilliant goal from Barry Reilly in the first-half that acted as the catalyst for a 1-14 to 0-10 victory to send Farrell's men into a quarter-final showdown with Gowna.
The Stars started brightly and led 0-4 to 0-1 after the first quarter and while points from Ryan McCormack and Mark McKeown kept the lead through the second quarter it was only due to some poor shooting from Gowna that the town side led by 0-7 to 0-4 at half-time. Gowna resumed the sharper side to narrow the gap and received a further boost when Kingscourt were reduced to 14 men early on in the half when Philip Smith saw red, before leveling matters at 0-8 each with 10 minutes remaining.
Gowna appeared to have the momentum with them, but a further McKeown point put Kingscourt back in the lead before the Longford border side squared things again.
At that stage, both sides were emptying the bench and Gowna were able to call on former county stars Gerald Pearson and Dermot McCabe, but it was Kingscourt's subs that made the difference. A superb '50' from Gavin Sheenan and then a point from the excellent Barry Tully gave them a cushioned lead and while Gowna pegged one back, the Stars survived a late rally to reach the last four.
In the semis, Farrell's men avoided a meeting with big guns Mullahoran and Cavan Gaels and were fancied going into their clash against Ramor United.
After a shaky start, Kingscourt prevailed comfortable winners by 0-15 to 1-8 to book their place into a first county senior final in 11-long years.
"Bar the first ten minutes we played very well against Ramor," explained Pat, "and we were definitely six or seven points the better team on the day. In fairness, they were missing some of their better players including James McEnroe, but we weren't to know that at the time and we were still very confident after our performance."
The Stars were truly on the rise and while Farrell bidded to keep his players grounded, the town was completely kitted out in blue and white for the 'big day' come the last Sunday in September, and it was something that the chairman believed motivated the team as much as anything.
"There was a great buzz around the town," Pat enthused. "Businesses and shops had great will towards us but you'd have to be wary of that as well, because sometimes that it backfire on a team going into the final.
"Even our neighbour clubs like Magheracloone in Monaghan and Nobber in Meath were all wishing us well too, so we definitely couldn't have asked for more support from anyone."
A huge Kingscourt crowd flocked into Kingspan Breffni Park, with Pat estimating that the club's support on the day "certainly would have out numbered the Cavan Gaels support by four to one."
As for the small matter of the game, the early stages promised that the larger support were going home disappointed as the defending champions moved into a 1-3 to 0-1 lead after the opening quarter. By half-time they could only cut their deficit to four, but there was no hint of panic when Farrell got his players in for the interval, according to Pat, who was in dressing-room to experience the calm mood.
"In the first-half, the injury to Daire McMahon saw us lose our way a bit and it was only a few minutes after that when Sean Johnston got their goal and it put us five points behind.
"I was in the dressing-room at half-time and there was nothing really said, to be honest. There was no shouting or anything like that, everyone was fairly relaxed and the players just really wanted to get back out on to the pitch and get stuck back into it."
After another free from the deadly-accurate Johnston, Kingscourt took over from the 43rd minute onwards and were able to take advantage of the sustained pressure they put on the Gaels defence thanks to scores from Tomas Malone, Ryan McCormack, Barry Reilly and livewire substitute Mark McKeown. Then the big moment arrived with ten minutes to go…
Having penetrated the Gaels' rearguard once more, Kingscourt were awarded a 50th minute penalty when Reilly was adjudged to be fouled by his marker and McCormack coolly slotted the spot-kick home to hand the Stars a lead which they would never surrender, incidentally the latter received the 'Man of the Match' award for his 1-5 tally, while there was also a fair shout for Thomas Wakley to be given the accolade after a superb performance at full-back which helped to keep out the Gaels' threatening forwards until the very end.
"We can argue about a penalty and I know a lot of the Cavan Gaels crowd weren't happy that it was awarded, but at the end of the day it had to be put away," Pat commented.
"The game had been a draw before that and we had kicked the last three points so the momentum was with us and sometimes in football you get those breaks, and sometimes you don't. Either way, the team definitely showed bottle afterwards because Cavan Gaels went up and scored two points after that and we were disciplined in our defending not to give away another goal or any silly frees."
Either way the scenes afterwards were always going to be blue and white, but perhaps it was Alan Clarke's speech after receiving the Oliver Plunkett Cup which best summed up the feeling for Kingscourt afterwards.
"It's absolutely unbelievable, unbelievable... I'm still kind of half-speechless," said the Kingscourt captain.
"We didn't come down here to get beaten. I know a lot of people say that and Denn probably said that last year but we had a good league behind us. I suppose Cavan Gaels gave us a bit of a lesson down in Terry Coyle but we had a bad day that day and we put it down to that. This year we got a kick in the arse against Cuchullains, they were very good that day, we were very bad... We upped our game after that. You don't want to win leagues and championships by hammering teams, you want to win a dogfight and we did that today."
The team that lined-out that day, which will forever be remembered in the club's history, was as follows: Brendan McCormack; Daire McMahon, Thomas Wakely, Keith McCabe; Barry Tully, Alan Clarke, JP Reilly; Colm Smith, Gavin Sheenan; Barry Reilly (0-5, 4f), Philip Smith, Philip Tinnelly; Daryl Martin, Ryan McCormack (1-5, 1 pen, 5f,), Tomas Malone (0-1). Subs: Shane Gray, Joe McMahon (0-1), Mark McKeon (0-1); Sean Og Gargan, Neil McCabe.
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