It's true what they say: football IS a funny old game. St Nicholas' topsy-turvy 2004 season was an obvious case in point. Despite playing some decent football in Division 2B - and beating intermediate championship finalists O'Raghallaighs home and away - the Red & Whites were still threatened by the spectre of relegation towards the end of October. The drawn out nature of the fixtures in Louth is such that the Nicks' fate had yet to be resolved at the time of going to press. The original St Nicholas, AKA Santa Claus, is synonymous with Christmas. Appropriate really given that the festive season seems to be looming each year by the time the Drogheda club's fate for the following year is known! To say that the Nicks' 2004 season was a protracted affair would be an exercise in understatement. For some reason, their season seemed to drag out over the entire calendar year and the fact that they played only eight league games in an eight-month period speaks for itself. Somebody, somewhere isn't pulling their weight … and it's the clubs that are suffering. It's virtually impossible for an amateur team to sustain its effort over a campaign that stretches from February until November and, therefore, it was hardly surprising that - for the second successive year - St Nicholas should find themselves threatened with relegation as ambiguous autumn gave way to wicked winter. The Nicks hit top form around the middle of their league programme - during the summer - when they put three wins together at the expense of Dowdallshill, Sean McDermotts and O'Raghallaighs (away), but that was as good as it got and, as the season spluttered on they were dragged into a relegation dogfight with the aforementioned O'Raghallaighs and McDermotts. Everybody was tired. It was a lottery. Though they were far from outclassed in the intermediate football championship, St Nicholas still lost all four of their Group A outings, therefore finishing pointless at the foot of the table. They started off with an all-Drogheda derby against O'Raghallaighs at the windy Newtown Blues grounds on May 23. Despite holding their opponents scoreless for the first 19 minutes, the Nicks were caught by two opportunist goals and slipped to an unlucky 2-7 to 0-8 defeat. This would be the story of their championship as three more narrow losses followed. At Castlebellingham on May 29, Naomh Fionnbarra prevailed by three points, 0-12 to 0-9. Again, the Nicks gave as good as they got and they could have snatched something from this game had they shown a bit more composure in front of goal. St Fechins were in the opposite corner on July 1 and the Termonfeckin men won by a point, 0-7 to 0-6. St Nicholas closed their 2004 IFC campaign with a 1-12 to 1-7 defeat to Lannleire in a meaningless encounter at Castlebellingham on July 22. In the league, meanwhile, the Nicks were giving a better account of themselves. After opening up with a tremendous 2-6 to 0-7 first-round win over O'Raghallaighs on February 29, they lost to Westerns and Sean O'Mahonys before drawing with Na Piarsaigh. St Nicholas made it seven points out of a possible eight when they accounted for bottom side Dowdallshill and Sean McDermotts and completed the double over O'Raghallaighs. (Incidentally these were the only three league games the club played between May 2 and August 12.) This left them in a strong position to challenge for promotion but three consecutive defeats saw them slip perilously close to the relegation zone. As the season drew belatedly to a close, the Nicks were locked in a three-way battle with the McDermotts and O'Raghallaighs to avoid the second relegation trapdoor (Dowdallshill had long since been demoted). The losers of that struggle would be playing junior football in 2005. St Nicholas' cause wasn't exactly helped by the fact that they had no home pitch during the year, but the redevelopment work that has been carried out should stand the club in good stead into the long-term future. Club treasurer Victor Hackett notes: "Once again the year has gone down to the wire. At one point we were looking towards promotion but we had a few injuries and a bereavement in the club and lost a couple of games on the trot, which left us in a bit of trouble. It's a very close division and there are plenty of ups and downs. Beating O'Raghallaighs home and away shows what we can do, because they probably should have won the intermediate championship. "Our target at the start of the year was to push for promotion and it was going well for a while. But whatever happened with the County Board is a joke and I don't think anyone in the county should accept a repeat of this. We had only eight league games played by the tenth month of the year! I find that inexcusable. Then, as soon as the championship was over, all the fixtures came on top of each other. It's extremely unsatisfactory. It's very difficult for any club to do themselves justice under those circumstances. "Our home game against Na Piarsaigh was called off three times. The two teams were on the pitch but there was no referee!" St Nicholas didn't deserve to find themselves in such trouble. Mind you, few teams ever do! They played some good football over the season, all the more impressive considering the inherent youth of the team. Great credit is due to team managers Hughie Downey and Jimmy McQuillan for the manner in which they kept the show on the road under such trying circumstances. "They kept the team training from January right into the depths of winter. You have to admire them," Victor notes. Was the committee man disappointed with the four championship defeats? "They didn't make an impression in the championship but they gave it their best shot. To be honest, we were more focused on establishing ourselves in the league. It was our second year up and we had stayed up by one point in 2003, so we wanted to avoid a repeat of that…" Are there the makings of an intermediate team there? "I'm quietly confident. We had a transitional period this year with three minors coming through. Two of those - Peter Arnold and Sean Closkey - were with the county minors. There are a lot of other fine young players coming through who have also featured with the county, men like Darren Stephenson, Paddy O'Boyle and Andrew Tinley. So the future looks promising." At juvenile level, it was an unspectacular year but the U11s and U13s still reached Drogheda league finals. The field development at Jimmy Pentony Park represented a huge step forward. A £60,000 redevelopment saw the field re-seeded, the goals repositioned and a new training area developed. In the meantime, the Nicks played their adult games on the Wolfe Tones pitch and their juvenile games in St Oliver's College. They'll be back on home territory next year. Tweet

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