St. Vincent's retained their the Junior 'A' football status for another year when they defeated Moynalty in a relegation play-off at the tail end of the seasons. Chairman Gerry Tuite, and juvenile secretary Ambrose O'Sullivan reviewed the year. Having been promoted from the Junior 'B' ranks the previous year, St. Vincent's were intent on consolidating their position in the 'A' grade in 2004. It was a close call, but mission accomplished nevertheless! Having finished bottom of Group B with just a solitary point from seven outings, many outsiders could be forgiven for thinking that St. Vincent's had struggled to find their feet during 2004. However, raw statistics can paint a misleading picture. In truth they weren't that far away from a comfortable mid-table finish. St. Vincent's finished with a scoring difference of minus 15, marginally worse off than Kilmainham (minus 16), who came third from bottom in the group on five points. The east Math outfit lost two of the group games by a single point: Meath Hill pipped them 1-11 to 1-10, while Summerhill prevailed on a 4-10 to 3-13 scoreline. St. Michael's and Moylagh had just two points to spare in their victories, while Dunboyne had a three-point margin. Their biggest defeat came at the hands of Kilmainham, who had six points to spare. Gerry Tuite who we understand is the youngest chairman in the history of the club elaborated: "Every championship match we lost this year, was lost by a narrow margin. In many of those games we came away with nothing, when we probably deserved at least a draw. That meant we struggled to stay up." But stay up they did and at the first time of asking. "We beat Moynalty 1-12 to 1-7. It was a comfortable enough victory. They were never really in that game. The losers then played Clann na nGael to determine, which team was relegated. Moynalty lost out and went down," he confirmed. Manager Paul Clarke, selector Willie Tuite and David Dunne, who helped organised the club's twice weekly training sessions can take heart from the club's battling performances during the year and solace from the fact that the club's Junior 'A' status was preserved for another year. St. Vincent's second-string put in a rousing year, which eventually saw them going under to St. Mary's in the Div 5 'B' League final "It was a very good achievement to make it to the final, when you consider they are a very young team and this is a very small parish." He continued: "We would have lost a few players for one reason or another and that didn't help our cause, because we have a relatively small pool of players to pick from." The club's reserve league management team of Gerry Clerkin, Ronnie McNally, Brendan McKenna, Derek White and Pat Murray got their very best out of a predominantly young group of players, who "boxed" above their weight for most of the year. That impressive 'B' league saw the continued emergence up and coming young players such as Darren Lane, Tomas Field and Ronan Sheridan, who will no doubt be pushing for place on the 'A' team in 2005. With 2005 just around the corner and another year of football action in the offing, Gerry believes St. Vincent's could be involved in the Junior 'A' Football Championship at the business at of the season. " I feel the Junior 'A' side can advance well in the championship. I would like to see them making it to the final. If they made the knock-out stages, anything could happen, and they could go all the way. "The players are there and we are hoping to recruit a few new players before the start of the year. If we can do that, we would be in with a realistic chance of doing very well," he added. Meanwhile, St. Vincent's continued to shine at underage level during 2004. For the third successive year, the club's Under 12 team lifted the Div 4 crown. Juvenile secretary Ambrose O'Sullivan elaborated: "It was another great year for the Under 12s. It was our third title in a row, which is a great achievement for a rural parish." "Three players, John Brangan, Tadhg Giles and Colm Hand now have three Under 12 winning medals, which must be some kind of a record," he added. Under the guidance of Pat Hand, John Brangan (Snr) and Ambrose, St. Vincent's Under 12 winning team were backboned by full back Stephen McNulty, centre half back Tadhg Giles and Colm Hand at centre half forward, while Ronan Watters, Robbie Tormey and John Brangan were others to shine. Ambrose enthused: "We started with victories over Syddan, Kilmainhamwood, Rathkenny and Moynalty and were beaten by Ballinlough. We then beat Moynalty in the semi-final, before reversing the decision over Ballinlough in the final in Bective on June 12." The Under 13 team also shone during 2004. Ambrose recalled: "Practically the same team (the Under 12s) with only two changes in personnel went on to compete in Div. 3 Under 13 championship. We reached the semi-final where we were beaten by a very good St. Pat's team, going down 3-12 to 1-15 in Duleek on September 19." However, the Under 14 team didn't cover themselves in glory. Ambrose explained: "Some of our players were in boarding school, others concentrated on the Under 16 team, where we are combined with Curraha, and other for personal reasons weren't available." He continued: "The unfortunate part of it all is that had all of our players been available at the same time, we would have built on the success of the previous two years and given all our opponents a run for their money." He added: "In the future the club will have to enforce a rule that if player doesn't make himself available for his immediate age group, he should not be considered for selection outside it." The club's nursery team the Under 10s acquitted themselves very well in 2004, despite the fact that many of them are eligible to play for another two years. Ambrose revealed: "We played all the games in the regional competition, loosing more than we won, but hopefully we will be able to keep them together and maybe in two or three years time we will be back competing for honours at Under 12." Off the field the club made significant progress in terms of improving its playing facilities. State-of-the-art floodlights, at an estimated cost of E100,000 were installed around the pitch. From the early planning stages to completion took two just two years. "As we went around different pitches in the county, we realised that we needed to install lights that would allow us to play full scale matches, rather than just training sessions. Firstly, we installed temporary lights to facilitate training and then went ahead with the full project this year," revealed Gerry Tuite. He continued: "It is one of the biggest developments the club has ever undertaken and I would like to thank all of the committee for the hard work they put in to raise the funds needed. It is a thoroughly professional job and everybody involved can take great pride in their achievements." The benefits to the club will be immense. "It means we now have excellent facilities for training and playing challenge and league matches at the beginning of the year. It will give us the flexibility to play some of our matches at night, which will be a huge boost," he added. * The club would like to congratulate first team regular Enda Murphy, who captured a JHC (2) medal, while lining out for St. Pat's during the year. Similarly, St. Vincent's would like to thank their first ever lady secretary Kay Cashen for a job well done. St. Vincents juvenile club 2004 was another successful year for St. Vincents Juveniles. We competed at U10, U12, U13 and U14. On reflection I'd have to say that our U14 team did not do themselves justice at all. Some of our players were in boarding school, some preferring to concentrate on the U16 team where we were combined with Curragha and others for personal reasons were unavailable. The unfortunate part of it all is that had all our players made themselves available at the same time we would have given all or opponents a run for their money, building on the success of previous years. In the future the club will have to enforce the rule that if the players don't make themselves available for their immediate age group they should not be considered for selection outside it. Our U12 team made history in 2004 when winning the league for the third year in a row. We started with victories over Syddan, Kilmainhamwood, Rathkenny and Moynalty, loosing to Ballinlough in the first round. We beat Moynalty in the Semi-final and reverse the decision against Ballinlough in Bective on the 12th June when we won the final for three in a row. Practically the same team with only two changes of personnel went on to compete in the division three U13 Div 3 competition and reached the semi final where we were beaten by a very good St. Pats team going down 3-12 to 1-15 on a very windy Sunday in Duleek on the 19th September, having beaten them in the previous round. We had a very good U10 team this year many of whom will still be eligible for another two and even three years to come. We played all the games in the regional competition losing more than we won but hopefully we will be competing for honours again U12. In the meantime however, we may not be able to compete at all due to lack of numbers. Our parish was the only one in Meath and possibly the only one East of the Shannon to show a decline in population in the last census. The only shop in the village of Ardcath has closed down. We have 50 children enrolled in the school at present, if we loose only one pupil next September and the indications are that we will, then we will also lose a teacher. Contrast that with our neighbours Ratoath, where nearly 200 new students and five new teachers started last September and you'll see that while the immediate future of St. Vincents seems OK the crystal ball I'm looking into doesn't envisage any long term future for this club as a single entity. Tweet

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