Kingscourt Stars made very definite progress in 2002, much to the obvious satisfaction of the team's long-serving midfielder Gabriel Patterson. Every club has at least one unsung hero. In Kingscourt's case, that man could well be Gabriel Patterson. A behemoth in the midfield engine room all season, Patterson was a key player in the club's 2002 resurgence, a return-to-form that has seen the town side re-emerge as genuine contenders. The giant is waking from its slumber and all the indications are that the Stars will be hard stopped this coming season. In '02, they made remarkable progress, reaching a SFC semi-final and the Division One league final, only to be pipped on each occasion by 'team of the year' Gowna. With the club in a very healthy state all-round (they also reached U21 and minor finals in 2002 and won the U16 and junior B championships), right now is a pretty exciting time to be associated with Kingscourt Stars GFC, as Gabriel readily concurs. Reflecting on the relative success of the year ended (while precious little silverware was garnered ultimately, the Stars were very much in the running for all major honours), the formidable midfielder allows himself the trace of a smile. It may not have been a great year, but it was certainly a pretty damn good one: "We moved on from the previous year,which was encouraging. We put ourselves back in contention, and it was just a shame we didn't manage to round off the season by actually winning a senior trophy. Still, reaching the league final and the semi-final of the championship is a feat in itself and we're happy with the progress we made." For a club that once gorged itself on success, Kingscourt have been made to subsist on meagre rations of late. The hope now is that the protracted famine is coming to an end. Gabriel picks up the thread: "We haven't had much success since '93 [when Kingscourt last scooped the senior championship] but the club has certainly come along a lot under new manager Eamonn Dunne. Eamonn has done a great job with the team so far and I think he can bring us even further. He also has a good right hand man in Pat Faulkner, so the players are being well looked after and we're getting good leadership." Was Gabriel satisfied with Kingscourt's showing in 2002, bearing in mind that they transformed themselves from also-rans into true contenders? "You have to be careful not to set your targets too low. A club like Kingscourt can't really be happy just to be challenging, even if it is an improvement on previous years. We've still a lot more work to do. "At the end of the day, we didn't win anything and that was disappointing. But our other teams did well and we're happy about that. Winning the U16 and junior B and reaching the U21 and minor finals were particularly notable achievements in their own right. "So overall we're reasonably content. 2002 was definitely a step in the right direction and things appear to be going very well within the club. "Our main ambition is to win another senior championship within the next couple of years. That's Eamonn's target for the team. He has brought on a lot of good young players as well, which is very important." With a bit more luck and self-belief in 2002, Kingscourt might well have won a famous senior double. Does Gabriel feel that they've proven they're now good enough to capture major honours? "Like I said, we still haven't won anything so we'll not be getting carried away. We didn't play our best against Gowna in the championship semi-final. But we were missing Ryan McCormack who is a key forward and a very important player to Kingscourt and that might have had a bearing on the result. We didn't do ourselves justice on the day and that was possibly the most disappointing aspect of the whole thing. "We went into that game feeling confident. Gowna have had the upper hand on us these past couple of years, but we saw no reason why we couldn't match them. Unfortunately it just didn't happen for us on the day. It was a pity because we could have given them a game if we'd performed." To finish the year empty-handed after so much effort was a hard blow to cushion. "It was our longest year in a while,"Gabriel muses. "We didn't finish until December. We had nothing to show for it at the end of the day and that was disheartening." The Stars arguably deserved better for their Leviathan efforts. They played some wonderful football in 2002. "We probably played our best football in the league," their industrious midfielder notes. "We started with a tricky game against Cavan Gaels who were league and championship holders, and we got a draw with them. We kept it going from there and only lost two games all year, to finish joint top." Kingscourt faced Knockbride in the league quarterfinal. Played under lights, the match was an historic fixture . . . the first ever competitive game played in the Breffni County under floodlights. Fittingly, the home side prevailed and went on to conquer holders Cavan Gaels in the semi-final. Agonisingly for Gabriel Patterson, he sustained a broken bone in that semi-final tussle and the injury ruled him out of the final, wherein Gowna pipped them. Had Gabriel been available for that game, the outcome could have been different. Ruefully, he recalls: "I broke a bone in my hand and was missing for the final, along with a couple of others. It just wasn't to be. From a personal point of view, it was a disappointing end to my year. "The final was played in December and was a good game for the time of year. Gowna had just played in the Ulster club semi-final the previous weekend and we had our chances to beat them in the last few minutes. But we spurned those opportunities and they sneaked it." Still, Kingscourt must fancy their chances of success in 2003? "A good year like that is always going to be a hard act to follow, but we're up there with the best now and we have to knuckle down and give it another real go. The lads were a bit deflated at the end of the season but no better men than Eamonn and Pat to get them motivated and thinking positively again." A regular on the Kingscourt first team since returning from a spell in England in 1990, Gabriel has served the club in a variety of positions - including a stint between the posts! He featured at wing forward for the 1993 county final and also surpassed himself at centre half before being handed a permanent midfield jersey around 1994/95. A thoroughly committed clubman, he also finds time to run his own business - Kingscourt Couriers - and raise a young family (his wife celebrated a new arrival in October). Despite all these demands on his time, the player insists that he'll "give it another go this year and go at it again 110%". He continues: "There's a good underage structure in the club and they're producing plenty of young talent. There are a couple of good young players coming through this year. Alan Clarke, for example, captained the Cavan U16s last year and he came on with 15 minutes remaining in the Division One league final. The young blood is definitely filtering through. "We have a good minor team; a good U16 team and we're strong at U14 and U12 levels too. We're in good shape. "There's definitely a senior championship there for us. A lot of the present team won the minor championship in '98 and they were beaten in the under 21 final in 2001 and again in 2002. About six or seven of the senior team were under 21 last year, so the future looks bright." Three players (Philip Smith, Ryan McCormack and Thomas Wakely) were called in for the Cavan seniors over the winter and all three were brought on the team's holiday to the Canaries, so they're obviously held in high esteem by county management. All in all, things are looking up for Kingscourt and 2003 promises great things for the town side as their 'Star' continues its upward ascent. Tweet

Most Read Stories