Teams promoted from the Intermediate ranks always relish the challenge that mixing it with the big boys brings, but facing up to and matching that challenge thrown down by more experienced and battle-hardened sides is always a tough task. By David Sheehan.

St. Ultan's emerged from the 2008 Intermediate championship with the Mattie McDonnell trophy safely secured and a reputation for devastating attacking football built around a team full of pace and intelligence.
Following that Intermediate final victory over neighbours Cortown, several experienced heads questioned how the physically small Bohermeen/Martry outfit would cope with the rigours of senior football.
While the men in black and green didn't make the knock out stages in their first season, they came agonisingly close and certainly weren't out of place in the senior ranks - quite the opposite in fact, something which didn't surprise corner-back Jason Bennett in the slightest.
"When we started the year, we had the goal set of making the quarter-final, obviously that didn't happen but there were a couple of games that we could have won - that we were very near winning - and maybe a little bit of inexperience cost us," explained Jason. "The Blackhall Gaels game was the one that we should have won - we had the game in the bag but we got beaten in the end, maybe that was just inexperience."
That game will bring back painful memories for all Ultans followers. Leading by one point with time almost up, a pass intended for goalkeeper Alan Ball was intercepted and the ball ended up in the net to inflict the cruellest of defeats on Davy Cahill's troops. Losing the first game of the championship is always the nightmare scenario as straight away, thoughts of relegation start to enter the minds of players. Bennett doesn't feel that Ultans reacted badly to the Blackhall set-back though.
"We didn't dwell too long on the Blackhall result, Paul (Murray, whose pass it was that was intercepted) was a bit down in himself for a while but we picked ourselves up. We looked at it and thought that we were after coming so close to getting the win so we just got back to training and put our minds to winning the next game (which was Dunboyne) and we probably should have beaten Dunboyne. We had an extra man for most of that game and Cian Rennicks had a free at the end which, in fairness to Cian, he would kick nine times out of ten, but look, it just screwed off his boot a bit. It just didn't go for us."
That left St. Ultans with a mountain to climb if they were to achieve their goal of reaching the quarter-finals. With only one point - even though it could so easily have been four - from two games, nothing but two wins in their final two games would suffice. Facing up to the (at that time) unbeaten Skryne in the next round was Ultans' toughest task to date, but it was in that game that Bennett feels he and his team-mates played some of their best football of the season.
"Midway through the first half of the Skryne game, Gearóid Rennicks got a goal, and the work up to that goal - some people said they never saw a better goal scored in Páirc Tailteann. We are a light team, a footballing team, we're not physical, so when we get into Páirc Tailteann, that's where we like playing football and it showed against Skryne, we played all the football in the first half and went in a couple of points ahead. We love the space in there, it suits us down to the ground.
"Unfortunately - and it has happened us a few times over the last year - you're coming out in the second half with a few points to spare and if you take your foot off the gas at all well, you won't get away with that at senior level, you have to play for the full sixty minutes, and we ended up losing narrowly."
That defeat left St. Ultans, somewhat unbelievably, entering their last group game with Walterstown knowing that a win may see them through to a preliminary quarter-final (if Blackhall Gaels could beat Dunboyne), but defeat would leave them facing a relegation play-off.
"We knew after the Skryne game that we wouldn't be playing football for a while (due to Meath's involvement in the All-Ireland series), so we just kept training away and plugging away. At that stage it was just down to avoiding relegation, which nobody wants to talk about at training because it's a negative thing.
"It was tough at that stage because you didn't know when the game was going to be played, there were weeks where there wasn't a lot happening. But once we got the fixture we ramped it up a bit for the last couple of weeks before the game. We were in good shape for that game, we were fit. We played very well that night in Navan and won comfortably enough, we would play in Páirc Tailteann every game if we could!
"Unfortunately, when we beat Walterstown, we got word that Blackhall had been beaten by Dunboyne, so that meant we couldn't make the preliminary quarter-final."
That win over the Blacks did at least stave off the threat of relegation, and the year wound down somewhat after that. I then asked Jason if, given that he had seen Dunboyne, Blackhall Gaels and especially Skryne at close quarters, he surprised at the way they made their respective exits from the championship.
"I thought Skryne would be more dangerous than they were, I was surprised they went out of it the way they did, I thought they would be in with a shout of winning the championship. When we saw the way Blackhall and Dunboyne went out, it made missing out all the harder to take, we were thinking 'wouldn't it have been great to get a rattle at the likes of the Tones, maybe next year. We still have a lot of teams to play in the championship - the likes of O'Mahonys and teams like that, so we've got that to look forward to."
Our conversation finished on the subject of manager Davy Cahill, who finished his three-year term with Ultans at the end of the season. As you would expect, given the success the club has enjoyed, Bennett had nothing but positive things to say about the former Nobber and Bective man.
"We went looking for a manager in December 2006, after the Leinster junior final. Seán Kelly finished up and we only had about six weeks to find someone. Davy was available and got the job - and in fairness he did a great job. He was a good trainer, the drills were very good and he had good communication with the players. He'd certainly tell you when you were wrong but he'd praise you when you did well. He knew how to get the best out of the players he had. We're a small side as I said so we needed someone who got us playing the right tactics and Davy did that."
So, what are the ambitions for next year?
"After coming up, you'd have to be making a bit of an impact in the first couple of years to show you're a club that's able to move forward. The year gone by will bring us on that little bit more and we'll have that bit more experience next year. We'll have to be looking to make the knock-out stages next year."
Finally, any worries about complacency next year - the first season up is always a bit of a novelty, but will the panel be able to maintain the hunger next season?
"I'd have no worries on that front, we've got plenty of talent as we've shown, and we are a young side, so I'd have no worries at all - I think we can definitely make the quarter-finals, and after that, anything can happen."
Positives aplenty then for Bennett and his colleagues. 2010 will arguably prove a more difficult year than 2009, but if the luck which totally deserted the men in green and black this year returns, then there's every chance of them making a real impression in the race for the Keegan Cup. Tweet

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