Naomh Fionnbarra missed the promotion boat in 2004. For much of the season, the Togher outfit appeared on course for a return to senior football, but the wheels came off the wagon late on. Near misses in the IFC and Division 2A league mean the Finbarrs will play intermediate football once more in '05. Naomh Fionnbarra were amongst the pre-season IFC favourites and their early form in the competition justified this billing. The Togher men were in Group A of the intermediate championship, where they came up against O'Raghallaighs, St Fechins, Lannleire and St Nicholas. After sitting out the first round with a 'Bye', the Finbarrs opened their account with a 0-12 to 0-9 victory over the Nicks at Castlebellingham on May 29. They also played their remaining three group games at The Grove. St Fechins were comprehensively beaten on June 13, 2-9 to 0-5, and Naomh Fionnbarra effectively booked their passage to the knockout phase of the IFC with a 2-10 to 2-8 victory over Lannleire on July 4. Both Naomh Fionnbarra and O'Raghallaighs were already through to the knockout stages by the time they clashed in the final group game on July 22. However, there was still plenty to play for as the match would determine who finished top of the group and therefore progressed to the semi-final stage. As it transpired, O'Raghallaighs were more focused on the day and earned a semi-final meeting with Hunterstown Rovers by virtue of a 1-13 to 2-6 win. Defeat consigned the 'Barrs to the trickier side of the draw and a more difficult route to intermediate honours, namely a quarter-final clash with Oliver Plunketts. The quarter-final took place at Dunleer on the Friday evening of August 27 and Naomh Fionnbarra produced a masterful performance to record an astonishing 4-11 to 0-8 victory. On that night, more than ever, they had the look of champions. The semi-final proved a bridge too far, though. The Finbarrs failed to rediscover their quarter-final form and were well beaten by eventual champions Dreadnots, 2-9 to 1-5, at Drogheda on September 18. With their championship dreams dashed, it was time to switch attention to the league. At the time of their premier competition elimination, Naomh Fionnbarra were in a promising position on the Division 2A table and looked odds-on for promotion via the alternative avenue. Again, Dreadnots were the form team and the Clogherhead men went on to complete the double, capturing the Toner Cup by finishing the year top of Division 2A. Meanwhile, the race for the runners-up spot - and the second promotion place - had heated up. With one round of games remaining, it was hanging in the balance. The Finbarrs and the Plunketts were tied in second place. The last round of games took place on Sunday October 31. Naomh Fionnbarra were up against Hunterstown Rovers, while the Plunketts faced double-winning Dreadnots. But Dreadnots had nothing to play for and the Plunketts had gathered considerable momentum. Thus, the Drogheda side's comprehensive 3-12 to 1-7 victory did not come as a major surprise. Naomh Fionnbarra had to defeat relegation-threatened Hunterstown to force a play-off, but they failed to do so, falling to a costly 3-9 to 2-6 defeat. And that was it for another year. As Dreadnots and Oliver Plunketts prepared to move up to the top table, the Finbarrs were left pondering what might have been. Mark Devlin has been a mainstay of the Naomh Fionnbarra first team for 16 years and has been the club's outstanding senior player of the past decade. Like everybody else associated with the team, he was hoping the Green & Gold could negotiate a return passage to the top flight in 2004. Mark notes: "The target was to win the intermediate championship and to go up senior again. Failing that, we wanted to go up through the league. But we felt we were good enough to win another intermediate championship and that's what we set out to achieve. Once we were knocked out, we lost the plot entirely and promotion slipped through our fingers." Pat Hand, Willie Shevlin and Michael Doyle took charge of team affairs for the year and it was All Systems Go up until the semi-final defeat to Clogherhead, a game where the wheels came well and truly off the wagon. After that match, the Finbarrs also lost their rhythm in the all-county league, losing their final three matches and allowing the Plunketts back into the promotion frame. As Mark concedes: "We can have no complaints about the semi-final defeat because Dreadnots were clearly the better team on the day and fully deserved to win. We had played well in the championship before that. We beat the Nicks, the Fechins and Lannleire and it was between ourselves and O'Raghallaighs to top the group. We were short that day and they beat us by a couple of points and finished top. In hindsight, that may have been where we let it slip. We'd have been in a much better position going into a semi-final against Hunterstown." The 15-point quarter-final win was the performance of the year. While the world expected a close encounter, Naomh Fionnbarra ruthlessly dismantled the Plunketts with a frighteningly efficient demolition job. Unsurprisingly, the Togher men became competition favourites. Says Mark: "We took our chances that night. When the goal opportunities presented themselves, we put them away and I suppose many people would have viewed us as favourites on the strength of that performance. But the semi-final was a different story altogether. Dreadnots were the better side. We never played at all in the first half. We performed better in the second half and got 1-3 without reply but couldn't get close to them." All was not yet lost in the league. The runners-up in Division 2A would earn promotion alongside Dreadnots, and it was a two-horse race between Naomh Fionnbarra and Oliver Plunketts. However, as the season went on, the Drogheda side looked stronger while the Finbarrs began to assume all the characteristics of a spent force. "We were still in a very good position and our fate was in our own hands. But we lost a couple of games and it went down to the wire. With one round remaining, we were level with Oliver Plunketts and there was still even a possibility of a four-way play-off including Hunterstown and Geraldines…" Thus, the fate of one of Louth's most notorious yo-yo clubs remained in doubt as the Halloween 2004 drama unfolded at venues around the county. The Plunketts inflicted a rare defeat on Dreadnots, while Hunterstown hammered the final nail into Naomh Fionnbarra's coffin. It was all very, very disappointing, but the writing had been on the wall from the time of the championship defeat to Dreadnots. That setback knocked the stuffing out of the Togher team and effectively ended their season. Mark Devlin is 33 now and has been playing first-team football with Naomh Fionnbarra since he was 16. The 2001 intermediate champions played well for the first half of '04, but: "We lost John Doyle with a knee injury and Nigel Shevlin went to America after the Dreadnots game. We only had the bare 15 for the next league game against Oliver Plunketts and they beat us. It was obvious that things had gone wrong because a few weeks earlier we had hammered them in the championship. "It can be hard to hold things together after getting knocked out of the championship, and we struggled to field a team. That's the way it goes, though. "I've been up senior with the club three times before and I'm hoping to keep it going for another few years and to play senior football with the Finbarrs again." Ultimately, it was a year to forget. But Naomh Fionnbarra will bounce back. They always do. Tweet

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