If the powers that be in Louth GAA circles completely lost the run of themselves and decided to present a special award to the most unlucky team in the county in 2004, there would be many genuine contenders. Hard luck stories are the order of the day in the Louth senior football championship every year - and 2004 was no different. Naomh Mairtin were the first club to receive a two-fingered salute from Lady Fortune, crashing lucklessly out of the race for the Joe Ward Cup as early as mid-June. The 'rub of the green' is vital in sport. Rarely, if ever, does a team or individual reign supreme without enjoying at least a slight brush of good fortune along the way. Without it, victory can prove impossible. In the 2004 Louth SFC, Lady Luck did not smile favourably upon Naomh Mairtin. The divine mistress of destiny was apparently busy elsewhere. Some would tell you she can't even spell Monasterboice… In recent years, Naomh Mairtin have become a regular participant in the latter stages of the senior championship. Their penchant for reaching the knock-outs since the new format came on stream has been second to none and 'the Jocks' set about the task with their customary determination in '04. They were drawn in Group A, alongside defending county champions St Patricks, former kingpins Clan na Gael and Roche Emmets. It was a difficult group, but one the Mairtins were capable of negotiating. Alas, however, things did not go quite according to plan. It was a tremendous honour for the Monasterboice club when their talismanic attacker JP Rooney was voted Louth Senior Footballer of the Year for 2003. One of the most lethal attackers in the Wee County, Rooney fully deserved the accolade. However, injury deprived the Mairtins of their star man for most of the ensuing season, and this undoubtedly had a negative impact. If JP's injury represented a massive blow for new county manager Val Andrews, then it was a devastating setback for his club. As it transpired, JP featured in all three of the Mairtins' group games, but he was lacking match sharpness and was a shadow of the player he can be. With a fully-fit JP Rooney at their disposal, Naomh Mairtin would surely have advanced to the business end of the county's blue riband gaelic football contest. As it was, they almost made it regardless. But the tale of the Mairtins' championship campaign is an agonising one. All three of their Group A matches were decided by the minimum margin. They edged victory against Roche but were then pipped by both the Pats and the Clans in their next two outings. Naomh Mairtin didn't deserve to lose either of those matches, yet alone both of them - but sometimes that's the way the cookie crumbles and there's little any of us can do to change it. The last group outing against Clan na Gael was effectively an eliminator. Both teams were on two points, so the winners were guaranteed passage to the next phase as group runners-up. The Mairtins gave as good as they got and fought back from a five-point interval deficit to lead in injury time. Unbelievably, Clans equalised before hitting the winning score so deep into added time that it was almost tomorrow! The point that removed Naomh Mairtin from the 2004 Louth senior football championship arrived eight minutes into added time. In a cruel twist of irony, the referee had added on the extra minutes due to a nasty injury to Eddie Martin, who was having a magnificent game for the Monasterboice men but had to be removed to hospital. Sod's law. In the blink of an eye, Naomh Mairtin's 2004 SFC dream had been shattered. It can be a wicked game sometimes. The Mairtins kicked off their campaign with a 1-12 to 2-8 defeat of Roche Emmets at Dunleer on Saturday May 22. The winners led by seven with three minutes remaining but were rocked by late goals from Philip Quinn and Michael Craven. Michael Fanning netted for the Monasterboice representatives, who were also well served by five points from Francis McCullagh frees and three Nicky McDonnell scores from play. JP Rooney made a cameo appearance, entering the fray with nine minutes left. It may have been nervy in the end but it was a perfect start to the Mairtins' campaign nonetheless. They had two points on the board. Next up was a meeting with defending county champions St Patricks at Castlebellingham seven days later, Sunday May 29. Naomh Mairtin dominated the match for long periods but somehow the Pats managed to escape The Grove with an unlikely 1-7 to 1-6 victory in their grateful grasp. Pats - who booked their place in the last eight as a consequence - weren't particularly impressive and the Mairtins were unquestionably unfortunate not to take something from it. Nicky McDonnell (1-3) and Francis McCullagh (0-3) got all their scores. The winners had a goal from Ray Finnegan in the third minute and held on for victory despite a below-par display. The three McDonnell brothers - James, Nicky and Paul - terrorised the Lordship men from start to finish and the Mairtins matched the county champions in every sector of the field. How they failed to take at least a point from the game we will never know. But there was still a chance: Naomh Mairtin could still progress to the knock-out stage if they beat Clans at the Castlebellingham venue on Sunday June 20. Again, they played particularly well, especially in the second half. Again, their opponents executed a trick that Harry Houdini would've been proud of, to come away with the spoils despite having been outplayed. Clan na Gael had been reduced to fourteen men when Seamus O'Hanlon walked for an off-the-ball indiscretion, but they somehow managed to keep their calm to record an unlikely win and consign the Mairtins to an exit that was undeserved and cruel. It was all over for Naomh Mairtin. It was time for their depleted troops to switch their attention to their perilously low position in Division 1B of the all-county league. With relegation threatening, that issue would have to be addressed immediately. In the cut and thrust of senior club football, there's room for neither heavy hearts nor weary limbs! Naomh Mairtin's backroom team for the 2004 season consisted of manager Martin Winters and his assistants Dick McCormack and Frank Keenan. Speaking to 'Wee County 2004' shortly after his team had been knocked out of the senior championship, the latter admitted that disappointment was the order of the day: "We definitely gave as good as we got in all three games. We were beaten by one point by two of the strongest clubs in the county and that says a lot about the hard work the lads did at training for five months. The commitment was excellent and the players did everything that could've been expected of them. But they were just a bit unlucky … things didn't go their way at crucial stages." Going back to the championship opener, the Mairtins did well for the most part but were given a fright when Roche came back into the game late on. Frank reflects: "We thought after the Roche game that maybe we were lacking a little bit of fitness, so we worked on that and improved before the Pats game. Against the Pats, we did everything we could but it just didn't go our way. Unfortunately 'ifs' and 'buts' don't win any football matches. When the game's over, the only thing that matters is the score on the board. And that told us we were second…" Ultimately, as had been widely predicted when the groups were drawn, it all came down to the Clans game. A quarter-final place was still up for grabs and the Mairtins were determined to grasp it: "We knew the Clans would be strong, but we were confident," says Frank. "We know the way they play and we had a game plan. We trained along those lines and concentrated on our own game. When they went down to 14 men, as sometimes happens, it seemed to give them a boost, and losing Eddie, who is a major player for us, was a massive blow. "The referee's decision was to play eight minutes and we have to accept that. A lot of people thought a draw would have been a fair result and six minutes into stoppage time I don't think anybody would have minded coming back and playing the game again. But they got the late score and there was no coming back from that." Needless to say, it was hard to swallow. "Everybody was very disappointed," Frank admits. "We won one game by a point and lost two others by a point, which shows just how close the group was. We had three players with the county seniors during the year [JP Rooney, Nicky McDonnell and James McDonnell. The latter was in superb form in 2004 and was brought into the county setup by Val Andrews after the Qualifier against Antrim, in a move to bolster his midfield], so we're obviously doing something right." Thus, the Mairtins - perennial quarter-finalists - were conspicuous in their absence from the knock-out stage of the 2004 SFC. "You take each game as it comes," Frank notes. "We knew the game against the Clans would be the key one in our group and we hoped to win that. That's what we worked towards but it just didn't happen for us. "JP's injury was a big blow. He had only played one full game by the end of June. Losing him for five months was a massive blow. He was sorely missed by Louth, so you can imagine how much we missed him!" Not a year to remember then, but there was nothing wrong with the performances. Tweet

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