Nothing went according to plan for St Pauls in 2003 but the team spirit and sense of camaraderie amongst the club is such that centre forward Philip Connolly forecasts a dramatic return to form for the Clonee men in the coming season. They say in certain well-versed quarters that a good start is half the journey. The converse of this also holds true. When a team's season gets off to a shaky start, it can be difficult to turn the corner. Such a fate befell hapless St Pauls in '03. Before the Clonee men knew it, the defeats were raining down upon them thick and fast. There was no respite, nowhere to hide, as the Pauls endured a season that could at best be described as inglorious. They went into the relegation play-offs on a real downer and ended up biting the bullet following defeats at the hands of Clann na nGael (0-10 to 0-6) and Gaeil Colmcille (2-9 to 0-11). Demotion spelt a thoroughly bleak end to a season the Pauls will want to forget in a hurry ... The fulcrum of the Clonee attack during the season gone by, Philip Connolly accepts that it was a year the Pauls will gladly erase from their collective memories. But he promises they won't sit around mulling over the hows, whys, ifs and buts of where and when it all went wrong. Licking wounds is not the St Pauls' way. A wounded animal has another option - it can roar out of the corner fighting. And that's precisely what Philip expects the Blue and Golds to do when the action resumes in 2004: "There are very close ties in the club. This gives us a unity of purpose and a common goal that we all aspire towards. We intend to strike back big time next year. We know we didn't do ourselves justice in 2003 and it's time to set the record straight. A few of our better players were hampered by injury last year but hopefully we'll have a clean bill of health in '04 and that should provide us with a platform from which to bounce back. "Our aim is to come straight back up into Division Three again, which we're more than capable of. And we're not going to roll over for anybody in the championship this time around. People are going to see a totally different St Pauls next year." After winning the all-county JFC in 1999 (as well as the Division Three league the following year), St Pauls played intermediate football for two seasons but slipped back to junior grade at the end of the 2001 campaign. Due to a combination of injuries and defections they failed to make an impression in 2002. Those difficulties manifested themselves further in '03 and the situation deteriorated. St Pauls were in Group B of the junior championship and lost four of their five outings (against O'Mahonys, St Michaels, Bective and Meath Hill), drawing the other against St Marys. In the league, they finished well adrift at the bottom of Division Three, losing all eleven games played. To an extent, it was the substance from which nightmares are made. It certainly wasn't what they had been expecting, as Philip confirms: "At the start of the year, our aim was to perform better than we had in 2002. We set out with the intention of turning things around but unfortunately it was the same old story again on the injury front and that left us under-strength. "We were full of confidence going into the championship opener against Meath Hill but lost by a couple of points. We'd high hopes for that game but it just didn't happen for us on the day. We actually played fairly well but didn't take our scores. That defeat knocked us back a fair bit. "A good start normally fills the lads with confidence and it's important to get off on the right foot. Instead the heads dropped and we never got them up again..." St Pauls' second championship outing was against O'Mahonys and the Navan side collected two points en route to running away with the group. An excellent jostle with St Marys - one of the Pauls' best performances all year - finished in a draw. But due to a general lack of confidence the Clonee side lost their remaining two group matches to finish bottom of the group and tumble into the dreaded relegation play-offs. After that, they were simply unable to salvage their season. Now aged 27, Philip Connolly has been training with St Pauls since he was 15. He has figured at corner forward and centrefield in the past but featured predominantly 'on the forty' in 2003. When St Pauls faced Duleek at the semi-final stage of the 1995 JFC, Philip had the distinction of lining out on the same side as his father, Martin. That was his debut season on the first team - Martin played full back and Philip was full forward. Unfortunately Duleek spoiled the party, winning by a point after a replay. Martin Connolly is an ardent St Pauls clubman, though he hails originally from Monaghan and won a junior championship with Truagh Gaels in the early 1970s. The Connolly family home is beside the Pauls pitch in Dunboyne and Martin played with the club right up to his retirement in 1998. Assessing the current St Pauls crop, Connolly Jnr. is confident that the Clonee outfit can turn the corner: "We've a good strong squad with a number of hardy players - the likes of [full forward] Alan Barker, [corner back] Nicky Gogan and [wing forward] Cormac Finn will always give as good as they get and they'll never let you down. Nicky and Cormac had trials with the Meath juniors at the start of they year. That brought them along and you could see it in their game. "Alan led the attack brilliantly all year. He's a great ball winner and a good man to pick off scores." A few of the older lads supplement these players: "Men like Eamonn Moyles, Sean Moyles and Mike Fox are responsible for holding the team together. They provide tremendous leadership and offer encouragement at all times. It's a great club and the heart is still very much here. We'll be a force to reckon with again. "We then have some exceptional young talent coming through as well - Anthony Barker, Damien Barker and Ciaran Gogan will all be big players for St Pauls in the future. "We've a nice blend at the moment and hopefully we'll have a few more players coming to us next year to add some strength. We've been trying to build a team again since we were relegated and its going slowly but surely ... hopefully it won't be long before we're back winning championships again." First team management duties were handled in 2003 by Richie Gibbons and David Higgins. The latter was a selector in 1999 and, according to Philip, "makes a huge input into the team. He gives great pep talks and always has the lads motivated." How will St Pauls fare in 2004? "I'll guarantee you one thing, we won't be in a relegation battle! We're going to fight for a play-off place at the very least and we'll be pushing for an immediate return to Division Three. "Two-thousand-and-three has been a poor year but I expect the older lads on the team to have a few quiet words with the younger lads and get their confidence up again. If we get our full team out from the start of the year and keep them interested, then we'll be in business. "St Pauls is a real family club and it's a good social club too. We socialise together and that's important because it keeps a tight bond between us. We all go to Benny McDonnells' pub in Clonee at least once a week over the winter and we talk about the football. We organise trips together and go off for weekends - all of this fosters a good team spirit." Also winner of a Division Five medal in 1995 and an U14 hurling championship medal with Dunboyne, Philip Connolly is bar manager at Knights Bar in Navan (formerly O'Malleys). Tweet

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