Perhaps the players knew it themselves. St Vincent's had just beaten them in the first round of the junior B championship, and there was that haunting feeling of inevitability hanging in the Bellewstown dressing-room. It was early April, but already it felt like 2003 was going to turn out just like 2002 and that meant that Bellewstown's footballers would suffer another fruitless year on the playing field. Bellewstown endured a torrid 2002, suffering relegation from the junior A championship and Division 4 in the league. They intended to bounce straight back up on the double this year, but things didn't go according to plan for the men in black and amber. They only managed a solitary win in the championship all year and ended up at the wrong end of the Division 5 table. Off the field matters didn't exactly help the team either with coach Paul Tobin, who is a former Dublin hurler, walking away after the defeat to St Vincent's. After only one game in the championship, the Bellewstown juniors appeared to be in disarray. They had no points or no manager, and their chances of jumping straight back up to the junior A grade already looked dead in the water. And so they proved to be, but it is not all doom and gloom around Bellewstown, as the club's versatile defender Paul Reilly points out. "It was a disappointing year to say the very least but we definitely have good enough players here to get promoted in both the championship and the league next year. We set about achieving that this year, but it didn't work out," he says. "But that's not to say that it won't happen next year and perhaps there were a number of factors that played a part in the way things turned out this year. Looking back, that first round defeat to St Vincent's was devastating. It was probably the one game that we really needed to win. Once you get off to a bad start it can be hard to get going again and we never really recovered. "We lost our manager after that. Some of the players didn't really get on with him and we found ourselves with nobody in charge after only one game. The chairman, Gerry Moore, and secretary John Kirwan took over the team for a couple of the league games before Stephen Sherlock came in and took charge. "Stephen didn't really have all that much time to improve things because he came in midway through the year, but as far as I know he wants to stay on next year as coach, which is great for the club. "If we can get all the players back training together early in the year then there is no reason why we can't do well. The average age of the team is only about 25, so we are by no means an old team." The 24-year-old Garda, who is based at Store Street Station in Dublin's city centre, also believes that a lack of interest played its part this year. "Certainly getting relegated from the league and championship the previous year took a lot out of the players. Perhaps there wasn't the same belief or interest but I hope we can get that back for next year." Bellewstown started life at junior B level against a well organised St Vincent's side at Stamullen in early April. However, they failed to settle into the grade and lost 0-6 to 0-12. "We were leading at half-time but they came back and beat us by a few points in the end. It was extremely disappointing and everybody was very down afterwards." It went from bad to worse though, as both Longwood and Boardsmill inflicted heavy defeats on Bellewstown in their next two championship outings. Longwood ran out 1-12 to 0-4 winners before Boardsmill cruised to a 3-9 to 0-4 a victory in an ill-tempered match. "There was a melee during that game as we had two men sent off and felt that they should also have had a player sent off. However, the result was all that really mattered and the defeat meant that we had lost our first three games in the championship." However, with Sherlock coaching the team there were obvious signs of improvement as the year progressed and they finally chalked up their first win in the championship over Castletown in mid June, 3-6 to 0-11. Unfortunately it was also to be their only victory of the campaign. However, they were unlucky in their final two matches of the championship in 2003. "We probably should have beaten Blackhall Gaels in our second last game because we played some good football against them. Similarly against Trim in our last game, we played well and yet again felt we should have taken something from the match. But on both occasions we ended up losing and that pretty much summed up the way our entire year went." In the league, Bellewstown failed to build on a bright start and slipped down the Division 5 table as the year progressed. They faced Moynalty, St Brigid's, Boardsmill, Kilmainham and Clonard in the division, and after an early win over Kilmainham things were looking good. "We entered the league feeling very confident that we could go straight back up to Division 4, but apart from that victory over Kilmainham it was a terrible campaign for us. We probably would have been more confident of doing something in the league than even in the championship. We certainly felt we were good enough but it didn't happen for us this year." Paul played his underage football with St Pat's in Stamullen, but has dedicated his entire adult football career to Bellewstown. He narrowly missed out on a Division 5 league winner's medal in recent years, and was also denied an under-21 championship title by Kilmainham. However, he still believes this current Bellewstown side can bring silverware home in the near future. "We know things haven't been great in the last few years but if the commitment is there next year then I think we'll be in with as good a chance as anybody else in both the league and the championship." For many associated with the club these last two years have been soul destroying. There is no hiding the fact that Bellewstown are at their lowest ebb in many a year, but they can take solace in the knowledge that almost every club in the country goes through a similar phase at some stage. They must now work diligently at climbing back up the ladder. Their performances in winning promotion to Division 4 in 2001 are testament that this team are capable of achieving better things in the coming years. The lack of an underage sector and their small catchment area make life difficult for the club to attract players, but with houses springing up in neighbouring Stamullen and Duleek it should not be too long before Bellewstown's population also increases. With fresh faces will come fresh hope, but for the time being the players already there are determined to give it another shot in 2004. Promotion from Division 5 or Junior B championship success may not appear to be hugely illustrious achievements, but they can sometimes be more important than even winning a senior championship. The battle for success and recognition is a long one, but Bellewstown's footballers intend to last the distance. Tweet

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