Glyde Rangers made a purposeful start to 2010 and produced some superb form to storm through to the Sheelan Cup final. It looked like they were on course for another successful season, but things went a little pear-shaped for the Tallanstown club thereafter and they needed a relegation semi-final play-off victory over St Marys in September to preserve their senior status. 

In Group C of the 2010 Paddy Sheelan Cup, Glyde delivered some impressive displays to finish top of a section also containing county champions Mattock Rangers and St Marys as well as Dundalk's intermediate trio Sean O'Mahonys, Na Piarsaigh and Clan na Gael. With 15 points from ten outings, the villagers progressed to the semi-finals, wherein they defeated another intermediate team, Roche Emmets, by 0-14 to 1-1 at Clan na Gael Park on Sunday, June 20th, holding their opponents scoreless in the second half.

The team on duty in the Sheelan Cup semi-final was: Anthony Nulty; Peter Duffy, James Whelan, Shane Sharkey; Mark O'Brien, Brian Duffy, Conor Sheridan (0-1); David Devaney (0-1), Gerrard Sheridan; Damien Garland (0-1), Clint Sweeney, Lar O'Brien (0-1); Dean Matthews (0-4), Martin O'Connor (0-2), Fiachra Sheridan (0-1). Subs: Shane Barry (0-1), Glen Finlay, Barry Brennan, Kevin Moran (0-2).
Having qualified for a second successive SFC semi-final in 2009, Glyde had hit the ground running in 2010 and were odds-on to collect silverware as they squared up to yet intermediate club, O'Raghallaighs, in the subsidiary league decider. However, the Hoops recorded a shock 0-14 to 2-7 victory at Collon on Saturday, June 26th and the fall-out from that defeat would impact severely on Glyde for the remainder of the year. The controversial double dismissal of David Devaney and Conor Sheridan ten minutes from the end had effectively ended the game as a fair contest and the sense of injustice rankled with the Glyde players, mentors, committee members and supporters alike. Unfortunately, they never quite shook it off and a disappointing championship campaign followed, as well as indifferent league form.

In the SFC, Glyde found themselves in Group D, where they were widely fancied to top a section completed by Dundalk Gaels and Dreadnots. However, they lost both outings within nine days in mid-August - 3-11 to 1-5 against Dreadnots and 0-13 to 0-8 against the Gaels - to finish bottom of the group and plummet into the relegation play-offs.
Fortunately, goals from Trevor O'Brien, James Whelan and Clint Sweeney secured a 3-5 to 0-8 success in Glyde's most important match of the year, at Ballybailie on Sunday, September 5th. The team that preserved Glyde's senior status was: Gerard Carroll; Liam Reid, Kevin Moran, Shane Sharkey; Cian Sharkey, Conor Sheridan, Philip McGahon; James Whelan (1-0), Gerrard Sheridan; Mark O'Brien, Clint Sweeney (1-0), Shane Barry (0-3); Trevor O'Brien (1-1), Damien Garland (0-1), Lar O'Brien. Subs: Brendan Lynch, Gareth Moran, Brian Duffy, Fiachra Sheridan.

While there is no masking the fact that it was a disappointing year, at least the players stuck together and showed their true mettle when it counted most. All was not lost...
Reflecting on the events of 2010, long-serving club stalwart Patsy Reid admits that it all left something of a sour taste in his mouth: "I was very disappointed with how it worked out because we started the year flying in the Sheelan Cup and everything was going great guns but things came off the rails and we were short a few players after that. As the year went on, we ended up short of eight players and that's an almost impossible situation to deal with.

"Some of them decided they weren't going to play anymore but they came back and stood up to be counted in the relegation play-off. The way things had been going, we decided that it would be a good year in the end if we stayed up, and that's how it worked out. They got themselves together for that game and delivered one of their best performances of the year. It's hard for a rural club to get lads out regularly for games these days with so much unemployment and everything, but at least they showed in the end that they still have some football in them.
"When the draw was made for the group stage of the championship, we were expecting to go through, but we're a small club and you can't afford to be without eight players from the previous year. We had been to two championship semi-finals and were hoping to go well again, but in the end we couldn't cope with so many lads unavailable."
To what extent did the disputed events in the Sheelan Cup final lead to a sense of disaffection amongst the players? "Let's just say it didn't do us any good," says Patsy. "It's unfortunate that a man can tell lies to the County Board and get away with it. We have proof that there were lies told and it shouldn't be accepted. We mean no disrespect to the O'Raghallaighs because they were the best team on the day, but when a player asks the referee why one of his colleagues is being sent off and he turns around and goes 'You can go, too', and issues another red card, then something isn't right. It's out of order. Referees should have to follow rules, too, and if they do wrong they should be taken to task over it.

"We had a hard year after that, the heads were gone, but luckily enough they got their heads back and played well in the play-off. We then had another incident with the County Board where they fixed a crucial league game against the Brides for 6 o'clock on a Tuesday evening. Lads couldn't get off work and we asked to have it re-scheduled but the points were given to the Brides. The County Board simply refused to accommodate us.
"In Glyde, the feeling is that we have always facilitated the County Board down through the years, forking out the money for Darver and towing the line, but we don't seem to be getting anything is return. We made great progress for a small club, but they haven't supported us.

"I sincerely hope that the lads in the club who decided to retire will have a re-think and come back next year because we need everybody on board. These lads are far too young to retire from football and we really need them. Then maybe we can get back to where we were. Hopefully they will feel that a lot of water has gone under the bridge and will be prepared to just move on.
"We have men like Martin Conlon, Mark Devlin Glen Finlay, Anthony Nulty, Marty Garland and others doing great work at underage level and we also have underage ladies football in the club now thanks to the likes of Audrey Kelly, Sylvia Smith and Fiona Whelan. There's a lot of activity in the club now, but we could do with a bit more space for training etc. The field can get a lot of abuse in bad weather, so we'll have to do something about it in the future."

In closing, Patsy remains upset by the way Glyde were treated in 2010: "I've been involved in football all my life and there are a lot of great men on the committee here - men like Tommy Burns and Brendan Woods - who put an awful lot into it and then have to put up with treatment like that. We were beating the best of them at the start of the year." Tweet

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