The great escapologists
November 27, 2011Duleek/Bellewstown dodged not one but two relegation bullets this year when their senior and junior 'A' teams performed Houdini acts against Trim and Wolfe Tones respectively.
Despite playing a large part of the game with 13 men and failing to score in the second half, the seniors held on for a dramatic 2-9 to 1-11 victory to condemn Trim to the drop after 62 years in the top flight, while the juniors got the better of Wolfe Tones by 1-15 to 0-13 in their relegation playoff final after losing the semi-final to Drumconrath by 1-12 to 1-19.
"Neither game was good for the heart, but the lads showed great fighting spirit to avoid relegation," Duleek/Bellewstown's affable secretary Joan Lenehan recalls.
"I can't tell you how much of a relief it was to win two relegation battles. At the final whistle in the Trim game, it felt like we had just won the championship. For the older lads like Peter Curran, Tony Cunningham, Kevin Smith, Ricky Nolan and Gordon Hynes and Karol McDonnell, who were both injured for that game, it meant the world to them to see us stay senior. They know what it's like to play junior and intermediate football and know just how difficult it is to get up senior.
"It would have been a big setback if we had gone down, but thankfully we're safe for another year and please God we won't have any relegation worries in 2012."
After reaching last year's SFC quarter-final - which they lost to Rathkenny after extra-time - on the back of famous wins over Summerhill and Navan O'Mahony's, Duleek/Bellewstown were determined to repeat those heroics this season, but three defeats out of four saw them finish bottom of Group C and they needed to pull out all the stops to get the better or Trim and retain their senior status.
"We were disappointed not to build on last year's progress, but I don't think the fixture schedule did us any favours. We were on a real high after beating our neighbours St. Pat's in our third game and would have felt confident of beating anyone if we had another game a week or two later. Instead, we were left twiddling our thumbs for eight weeks and by the time we played Walterstown, whatever momentum we had was lost.
"Also, we were missing seven players - Paul, Joey and David Martin, Gordon Hynes, Mark Collins, Karl McDonnell and Chris Carney - for different reasons and we had to take seven players from our junior 'A' team to replace them. That weakened our junior 'A' team and also impacted on our junior 'C' team who, in spite of this, still had a good year.
"They reached the JFC 'C' quarter-final, only to lose to a Na Fianna team who went on to play in the final. This was their first year up in Division 3 of the B league after winning Division 4 last year, and they didn't look out of place," explains Joan, whose father Bartle won an IFC medal with Duleek in 1955 and whose brother, also Bartle, collected MFC and JFC medals in 1989 and '95, and was also a member of Meath's 1990 All-Ireland MFC-winning team.
Managed by former Dublin footballer Declan Sheehan, who took over the reins from Colm Nally and whose selectors were local men Stephen Mills and Andrew O'Brien, Duleek/Bellewstown made a losing start to this year's Keegan Cup campaign when a last-gasp Stephen Moran pointed free denied them a share of the spoils against Dunboyne in Ashbourne.
The teams were level on three occasions in the first half before points from Moran and Ger Robinstown edged Dunboyne into a 1-5 to 1-3 interval lead. It remained a two-point game for much of the second half until a brace of Peter Curran frees levelled matters for the final time in the 59th minute. However, Moran's injury-time free saw Dunboyne prevail on a 1-9 to 1-8 scoreline.
The east Meath outfit produced another spirited performance against champions Skryne in their next outing at Pairc Tailteann, but still fell short by four points. They started brightly with points from Karl McDonnell, Mark Collins, John Flood, Peter Curran and Darren Mills helping them to a 0-7 to 0-4 lead after 26 minutes. But Skryne grabbed the last three points of the half to go into the break on level terms.
And they picked up from where they had left off in the second half when scoring an unanswered 1-3 in the first five minutes to effectively end the game as a contest. They had stretched out their lead to 1-14 to 0-8 before Duleek/Bellewstown rallied with late points from Curran, Collins and Tony Cunningham to leave the final score reading 1-16 to 0-15 in Skryne's favour.
The wearers of green and gold got their first win when they withstood a late comeback by their local rivals St. Patrick's to claim a 1-12 to 1-11 victory. Declan Sheehan's charges were full value for the two points, though they caused some anxious moments for their supporters when they conceded 1-2 in the closing stages.
Tony Cunningham's late point had Duleek/Bellewstown ahead by 0-8 to 0-7 at half-time. A Cianan Byrne goal midway through the second half, coupled with further points from Peter Curran and Darren Mills, looked to have settled the issue, but a Donal Landy penalty handed St. Pat's a lifeline and only a point separated the sides at full-time.
That win gave Duleek/Bellewstown an outside chance of reaching their second successive SFC quarter-final, but a 0-10 to 2-12 defeat to Walterstown in their final Group C outing at Dunshaughlin left them facing a relegation playoff instead. Despite the absence of key forward Mark Collins, Declan Sheehan's side raced into a 0-3 to 0-0 lead after six minutes. But Walterstown then took control and were 2-5 to 0-4 to the good at half-time. And despite the losers' best efforts to get back into the game, the men in black held firm for an eight-point victory.
Trim's defeat to Nobber in the relegation playoff semi-final meant they would provide the opposition for Duleek/Bellewstown in the do-or-die clash at Pairc Tailteann. The green and golds came racing out of the blocks and, despite having Stephen McArdle sent off in the 15th minute, led by 2-9 to 0-5 at the interval thanks to goals from half backs Kevin McCann and Brian Moore.
But after former county player Podge Howard was red-carded in the 35th minute, Trim started to pile on the pressure. Duleek/ Bellewstown's 13 men failed to score in a nail-biting second half, but their half-time lead proved just enough as they held on for a crucial victory by the narrowest of margins.
"The tension was unbearable - we thought the game would never end," the Duleek/Bellewstown secretary reflects.
"Once we went down to 13 players, it was real backs-to-the-wall stuff. When Peter Curran scored our last point in first half injury-time, you would never have thought it was going to be our last. But that's the way it turned out. Trim threw everything at us and it was a huge relief to still have our noses in front at the final whistle.
"What made it all the sweeter for us was the fact that the game was in Pairc Tailteann. Since we won the IFC final in 2005, it has been a bit of a graveyard for us. But we won there twice this year (against St. Patrick's and Trim), and hopefully we've got that particular monkey off our back now."
After initial teething problems, Joan believes the Duleek/Bellewstown combination is now working well.
"This is the fourth year of the amalgamation and things are going okay. We are fielding three adult teams and are doing well in the underage also. The decision to join forces has been good for both clubs," she concludes.
Duleek/Bellewstown lined out as follows in their SFC victory over St. Patrick's: R Nolan; K Smith, D Moore, P Howard; B Moore, M Dowling, K McCann; T Cunningham, M Collins; S McArdle, J Flood, D Mills; P Curran, K McDonnell, C Byrne. Sub used: C McGinley. Tweet
