Mission: Bounce back
December 31, 2001
Just two years after the jubilation of intermediate championship success, Syddan find themselves back in that grade after relegation from the senior ranks in 2001. But experienced defender Frank McKenna believes the club's familiarity with the middle tier will help them back to the top level at the first time of asking.
When Syddan held championship favourites Skryne to a draw - and by all accounts were slightly unlucky to come away with less than a victory - relegation could hardly have been further from their minds. However, that is the predicament in which they found themselves in late autumn when, after a first five minutes derived from nightmares, during which they fell nine points behind, they lost out to Ballinlough in the senior championship relegation play-off.
It was a cruel blow to a side that had won the intermediate championship with a series of performances characterised by togetherness and teamwork in the summer of 1999, and had gone on to justify their presence in the top grade by reaching the quarter-finals in their first year back as an elite side. They served up some meaty performances along the way, none more so than a 20-point hammering of Simonstown in Navan, and they were considered somewhat unfortunate to lose out to eventual champions Dunshaughlin in the last eight.
Twelve months on, and the picture has changed unrecognisably. As Frank McKenna, the club's long-serving defender, says, "football is all on the day", and Syddan enjoyed too few good days in the past year. The draw for the 2001 championship pitted them with Skryne, Gaeil Colmcille and Oldcastle and, given their exploits in the previous summer, Syddan were again eyeing the possibility of a last eight place. Ironically, the only point they gained from the group came in the match they were universally expected to lose, against Skryne, but by that stage they had already lost out to Kells, and a further defeat in the final round to Oldcastle plunged them into the relegation mire.
McKenna, while acknowledging that the root of Syddan's problems rests with themselves, insists they can count themselves unlucky to have been the team to lose out, that had a few key breaks or decisions fallen differently, they would be looking forward to a third year of senior football.
"In the game against Oldcastle," he says, "they got an early goal so we were always chasing the game a bit. But we scored a perfectly good goal that was disallowed, and that made a huge difference. A few other things didn't go our way. Brian Dillon was blown up in the wrong for bouncing the ball twice, and Oldcastle went straight up the field and scored a point. There was only the goal in it at the end, so if a few of those things had fallen for us, we would have been alright.
"But at the end of the day, we can blame no-one but ourselves. The Kells game was a disaster for us, it was really there for the taking but we hit 18 or 19 wides, and you can't be doing that and expect to win senior championship games. We only lost that game by two points, so we were the better team, but couldn't take our chances. That's the way it goes sometimes. Against Oldcastle, we probably got a few things wrong, tactically, by playing seven defenders. That can work for you or work against you, and it backfired a bit for us. No disrespect to them, but we all believe here that Syddan are a better team than Kells and Oldcastle, but you have to go out on the day and show it, and we didn't do that this year."
After those two defeats, Syddan were faced with the undesirable prospect of a loser-loses-all relegation play-off, against Ballinlough. Frank recalls the mood in the camp as being positive before the match, but all confidence evaporated after the hell of losing 2-3 in the first five minutes.
"The mood was good going into the game. Looking at Ballinlough, we reckoned they were more or less on an even keel as ourselves. They have more experience of senior football, but we still thought we had a great chance. But those first few minutes were a catastrophe. From midfield back, we were at sea, totally lost. We managed to get it together and only lost by three or four points in the end, but it was always going to be hard to come back from so far down."
So, just two years after clawing their way out of the intermediate sphere, Syddan will find themselves back in that pot next summer. But, insists McKenna, they will take great heart from the achievements of Blackhall Gaels in the past twelve months. In a half-mirror image of Syddan's story, the Gaels were relegated from senior just two years after gaining their intermediate title success, and succeeded in bouncing straight back to the top table. For the sake of perfect symmetry, Syddan would win the IFC in 2002. However, there are much greater forces than symmetry at work in Meath club football, with Syddan's renowned resilience top of the pile, and Frank says he would be tempted to invest a few shillings on Syddan making an immediate return to the senior grade.
Statistics back him up: Blackhall, the only side that have successfully returned across the divide, were the first side with recent and in-depth experience of intermediate level football to be relegated from senior since the promotion window was opened. Carnaross, Slane, St Michael's and Moynalvey - all clubs with much greater knowledge of senior football - have struggled in comparison, and Syddan aim to keep the trend going next summer.
"Blackhall winning is a great boost to us for next year," he says. "They've shown it can be done, and I think we have a great chance of doing the same. It will be hard, we know that, but we have good players here, and if we can get everyone pulling in the same direction, the experience should stand to us, and we should go close.
"There is a good mix of young and old here, myself, Shay (Duff), Paddy Skelly and Joey Dillon would probably be the oldest. The problem is that young lads everywhere have a lot more distractions these days than when I started playing, so it's harder to get everyone fully committed. But I've no doubt that if we can do that, we'll take some stopping next year."
As anyone with even a passing knowledge of Meath club football would testify, Syddan would hardly be Syddan without perseverance, and everyone involved in the club is determined to put the record straight in the coming 12 months, to consign 2001 to the dustbin as a blip and not a defining year in the club's history.
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