While their top priority of gaining promotion from Division Two may have escaped them, 2011 was year when Denn again surprised a few in the Cavan SFC before collecting silverware at Minor, U16, U14 and U13 level, as devoted clubman Jim Hyland explained.

These past few years have been somewhat of a rollercoaster for the senior footballers of Denn. From back-to-back senior football championship appearances in 2008 and 2009, to relegation from Division One of the league in 2010, many felt the Crosskeys men were on a slippery slope.

However, this past season Denn justified themselves rightfully as a senior championship side by handing intermediate champions Drumalee and Cuchuallins defeat to emerge from their group, unfortunately it was at the quarter-final stage where the team under the guidance of Jim Hyland and Martin Tennyson would end their championship journey for 2011.
At the start of the year, the team had come under the reins of Crossmaglen native Tomas Duffy but would be minus two of its top performers for the past three seasons in tenacious centre-back David McKiernan and marksman Darren Costello, which Hyland cited as two key losses to the side.

"Thomas Duffy from Crossmaglen was brought in as manager and he had two good selectors with him in Cathal O'Reilly and Thomas Smith, who had played for both club in county in the past.
"The main objective for the team was to try and stay in the senior championship and get out of Division Two in the league after being relegated the previous season."
"We were without David McKiernan, who had transferred to Clan Eireann in Armagh, and he would have been one of our best defenders, so that was a huge loss to us. We also lost Darren Costello to Australia in March as well, so they were two major losses for us to contend with going into our season."

Life in Division Two of the All County Football League would have a shaky start, as Duffy's team lost out in their opening pair of games against two of the division's minnows which had struggled to maintain their status in 2010. They would turn things around in the next three games with wins over Killinkere (1-12 to 0-5), Knockbride, (0-13 to 0-7) and Shannon Gaels (0-13 to 1-5) to revive their promotion hopes come may.

However, by that stage a new management would be in place after the club's decision to part company with Duffy at the end of April and replace him with a joint-management team of Jim Hyland and Martin Tennyson.
"We lost our first game in the league against Drung and in our second game we threw it away against Kill in Kill, so it wasn't the ideal start," explained Hyland.
"We won our next few games and we were in good enough form going into the championship, but with 16 points we had to settle for competing for a league semi-final place rather than getting promotion back to Division One, which had been our aim at the start of the year."

As for the club's decision to bring in new management, Hyland stated that it was an unfortunate situation, but one that the players felt was needed.
"By the time the senior championship started the team management had changed," he explained. "It was unfortunate and never should have happened. It was more of a misunderstanding than anything but it resulted in Thomas Duffy leaving and myself and Martin Tennyson coming in at the start of May.
"We took over the team and our objective was to try and get out of our group in the championship. We had Killygarry, Drumalee and Cuchullains, so we knew it wasn't going to be easy."

With the majority of their league campaign behind them, a Denn side under new managership switched their focus towards the championship and an opening contest against Killygarry at the end of July.

Played at the New Inns in Lavey, a Colin Kiernan goal on the eve of half-time looked to provide a major lift for Denn but the scores of Stephen McGovern and Thomas Leonard in the second-half settled the issue and saw Killygarry come away with a 1-14 to 1-8 victory, leaving the Crosskeys men needing wins from their remaining two games to progress through to the last eight.
"Against Killygarry we underperformed and they ended up winning the game by six points on the day," Hyland stated. "They were by far the better team over the hour and we knew we'd have to improve massively to have any chance of winning our last two game and getting through."

Drumalee were next up at Kingspan Breffni Park, where a Hubert Smith goal saw the two teams go in level at the break, before Denn moved through the gears in the second-half with points from Colin Kiernan, Tomas Corr and Shane Rehill to put themselves into the driving-seat and when a late goal from hit the back of the net, a first championship victory of 2011 was secured on a 2-10 to 0-10 score-line.
The following Sunday saw Denn journey to Kingspan Breffni Park once more to take on Cuchullains in a 'winner takes all' clash for a place in the last eight of the Cavan SFC.

After an even opening half, the sides went in at the break level on 0-5 apiece and it was Denn's big match experience that would be the telling difference between the sides from there on. The 2009 finalists raced out of the traps after the resumption and fired a quick 1-2, with Jerome Kiernan bagging the goal, to take a stronghold on the game and while their opponents battled back to reduce the deficit to three Denn held out and landed their insurance point in injury-time through Hubert Smith to book their place in the quarter-finals by 1-11 to 1-8 after a fine performance against the Mullagh side.

"We knew that we'd have to up the ante against Drumalee after the defeat to Killygarry the last day and we did," Hyland said "We were much better in that game and there was a bit more belief among the players. After the win against Cuchullains we felt we were improving by the game weren't afraid of meeting anyone in the quarter-finals."
The draw threw up a showdown with an in-form Belturbet side in the last eight at Kingspan Breffni Park, where all luck had deserted Denn on the day.

After making a strong start in the opening five minutes, Denn lost Ronan Kiernan to injury and would end up trailing at the break by 0-6 to 0-4, but they couldn't have asked for a better start to the second-half when they sent a high ball into the Belturbet square which was only half cleared by goalkeeper David Greene, leaving Jerome Kiernan with the simplest of tasks to roll the ball low to the Rories' net.
Belturbet hunted for an immediate reply, but ran into a stern Denn defence backboned by the superb trio of Martin Cahill, Ciaran McGovern and Eoin McPhilips.

Despite all that, there was still only a kick of the ball between the teams and Denn failed to capitalise on their bright resumption as two frees from Jason O'Reilly handed their opponents back the initiative. Hubert Smith levelled for Denn, after boring a hole in the Belturbet defence, but their counterparts were ignited at this stage and when Johnny Klusch set-up Fitzpatrick the young sharpshooter found his range to separate the sides once more.

Colin Kiernan hit back for to square the sides for the fourth time, but it seemed nothing could take the wind out of the Rories' sails as a splendid score from O'Reilly in the right corner and a fisted point from the speedy Gareth Fitzpatrick secured a 0-11 to 1-6 win and their place in the last four at Denn's expense.

"We lost Ronan Kiernan after five minutes to a serious tackle which should have resulted in a sending off for one their players, but they got away with it," said Hyland. "Colin Kiernan was also sick all week and wasn't right to play, but even with all that we still pushed them close and I felt it was a few bad decisions on the day that cost us."

Denn (SFC quarter-final v Belturbet): Brian Boylan; Aidan McKiernan, Ciaran McGovern, Eoin McPhilips; Adrian Cahill, Martin Cahill, Ronan Kiernan (0-1); Tomas Corr, Padraig McGovern (0-1); Jerome Kiernan (1-0), Martin McKiernan, Colin Kiernan (0-1); John Smith, Hubert Smith (0-2), Shane Redhill. Subs: Stephen McPartland for R Kiernan (11 mins, inj), Dean Hyland (0-1, 1f) for John Smith (blood sub, 26), Noel Crowe for Rehill (40 mins), Ferghal Farrelly for M McKiernan (49 mins), Christopher Cahill for McPartland (53 mins), John Smith for Dyland (59 mins).

Minors clinch Div 2 crown
In May, Denn's minor footballers tasted Division Two league success when they overcame the amalgamation of Ballinagh and Cornafean in a replay at the News Inns grounds in Lavey.

Under the guidance of Gerry Brady, the young Crosskeys men were in sizzling form throughout the campaign and topped the league table with an impressive run of seven wins, one draw and one defeat to book themselves into the semi-finals against Shannon Gaels /Dernacrieve.

Played at the end of April in Drumlane, Brady's charges recorded a 2-14 to 2-8 over the west Cavan amalgamation to set-up a mouth-watering showdown which was fixed for PJ Duke Park in Stradone. Denn entered the decider in Stradone as slight favourites having topped the table but were pushed all the way by their opponents, who had defeated them convincingly earlier on in the competition, and in the end would have to settle for a replay after a 0-13 to 1-10 draw. When the two sides met against on May 7 in Lavey, it was Denn that would emerge victorious after another epic battle which went right down to the wire.

Daryl Gaynor's early goal had the amalgamated outfit off to the perfect start inside the opening minutes and points from same player and fellow attacker Gavin Duffy had all signs pointing towards a one-sided contest.
However, the would-be winners eventually came to life as Dean Hyland, who would go on to notch 0-7, opened their account and scores from the same player and Ben Conaty soon followed which helped their team narrow the deficit to 1-7 to 0-4 by half-time. Denn still had a mountain to climb in the second-half, but this team would never shy away from rolling up their sleeves as two superb points from Brechan McGivney lifted their spirits and were soon backed up by full-forward Conaty and Alan Tierney raising a white flag each to breath down the necks of the leaders.

Down the other end, Duffy and Gaynor posted replies but it seemed nothing could yield the young Crosskeys men's momentum as a spearing run from midfielder Noel Crowe resulted in an over and gem of a point Tierney had the sides level, before Conaty sent over the lead point. Stunned by their opponents' pace, Ballinagh/Cornafean were short of a response and in the minutes remaining Hyland and Tierney dug deep to boot over the scores which wrapped up the title for their team.

Denn (MFL Div 2 final replay v Ballinagh): Killian Cahill; Stephen McConnell, Thomas Reilly, John McCabe; Christopher Cahill, Harry Thompson, Johan Lynch; Noel Crowe (0-1), Thomas Jordan; Declan Treacy, Brecan McGivney (0-3), Kevin McSherry; Alan Tierney (0-3), Ben Conaty (0-2), Dean Hyland (0-7). Subs: Andrew Cusack for J Lynch, Aaron Galligan for S McConnell.
"That minor team has come all the way from Division Four to Division One," said Hyland. "Gerry Brady was over the team and myself, Martin Tennyson and Raymond Smith, who was over the Under 16s, were all involved. Gerry Brady is an excellent manager and has done great work with this team. He managed the seniors to a league title back in 1998 and has been a great man for the club. Great credit must go to the players, because they put in a brilliant effort all year and were unfortunately beaten in the first round of the championship by Ballyhaise."

Underage scene continues to thrive
The silverware didn't stop at minor level for Denn in 2011 as Under 16, Under 14 and Under 13 success would also be achieved.
In July, the Under 16s did the club proud when they defeated St Joseph's in the Division Three league final at St Felim's Park in Drumalee by 4-12 to 3-7, while the Under 14 footballers did the club proud by delivering the Roinn C Championship title with a 2-9 to 0-11 win over St Joseph's in September. The Under 13s made history by recording the club's first championship success of the season when they defeated Knockbride by 3-16 to 5-6 in the Roinn B final on the 3G pitch at Kingspan Breffni Park.

"We've put a lot of structures in place since 2001 and this is only the start of it," Hyland enthused. "We'll be hoping that all of these players can stay committed and in a few years more and more can come through to the senior team. Underage is undoubtedly the way forward." Tweet

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