Flashes of brilliance
November 27, 2011With youth very much on their side, Aughnamullen could very soon re-emerge as a force to be reckoned with. Their first team was packed with prodigious U21 talent in 2011 and those very same U21 players also forced their way through to the county Division One football final. Manager Mick O'Dowd is adamant that the future is bright for the Sarsfields provided they can keep this crop together.
It was the U21 team that took pride of place in 2011, storming into the McQuillan Staircases Under 21 Football League Division One final against Scotstown at Cremartin on the evening of Monday, August 15th. En route to the decider, Derek O'Neill's charges has lost their opening league assignment to Scotstown before bounding back in style with an impressive run of victories over Castleblayney Faughs, Donaghmoyne and Monaghan Harps to finish second on the table.
Both Scotstown and Aughnamullen were backboned by players who had contested the 2009 MFC final, but the Sarsfields were up against it as their opponents were contesting a fifth consecutive county U21 decider - with wins in 2007 and 2009 - while it was very much virgin territory for the underdogs.
Four Scotstown goals in the space of ten second-half minutes turned the game on its head as the north county men claimed a 4-11 to 1-11 victory. Aughnamullen had performed brightly in the opening stages and led by five points after 38 minutes, holding their opponents scoreless from play for 29 minutes. Meanwhile, Sarsfields slipped over nine brilliant first-half points from play and they had superb performances on the night from Sam Dooney, Sean Sheridan, Mark McArdle, James Keenan and Pete Dooney, who had returned from the States. But Scotstown brought on senior players Kieran Hughes and Shane Carey at half time and seized control in the second period.
Patrick Sheridan, Mark McArdle, Thomas Finnegan and Sean Sheridan fired the opening four points of the contest. Patrick Sheridan, Pete Dooney, Sean Sheridan and Keenan added to the losers' first-half tally. At half time it was 0-9 to 0-8. Upon the resumption, Aughnamullen were unlucky when Keenan struck a post before soon after sliding home the game's opening goal after a second McArdle point to make it 1-10 to 0-8 - but that was as good as it got for Aughnamullen on their first-ever appearance in a county U21 decider.
Aughnamullen, 2011 Monaghan U21 Division One finalists: S Courtney; A Sheridan, S Ward (captain), E Fealy; S Conlon, S Dooney, E Sheridan; T Finnegan (0-1), C Wilson; P Bannigan, S Sheridan (0-3), J Keenan (1-1); P Sheridan (0-2), P Dooney (0-1), M McArdle (0-2). Subs: C Clerkin for Wilson (40), N Keenan for A Sheridan (42), K Sheridan for Fealy (49), S Deery (0-1) for P Sheridan (54).
In the SFC, Aughnamullen opened their programme with a 0-7 to 0-5 win over Drumhowan at Inniskeen on Saturday, June 11th and followed up with a stunning 1-12 to 0-11 victory over Currin at Emyvale eleven days later. They then crossed paths with red-hot competition favourites Carrickmacross and fell to a 1-14 to 1-5 defeat under lights at Inniskeen on Friday night, August 19th, which consigned them to the back-door. Despite a gallant effort eight days later, against Tyholland at Drumhowan on Saturday August 27th, they unluckily exited the intermediate championship race on a 1-11 to 1-10 scoreline.
A place in the semi-finals was at stake in that game and Aughnamullen, who were bolstered by the return of Pete Dooney to their starting XV, could consider themselves extremely unlucky not to progress. The winners had led by seven points coming towards the break but 14-man Aughnamullen rattled over eight successive scores and held their opponents scoreless for 25 minutes of the second half. Full back Sam Dooney, Chris Keenan and Damien Hamilton were all exceptional for the Sarsfields. Colm Flanagan made a surprise return to action and Tyholland led by 1-9 to 1-4 at the interval, with Keenan getting the Sarsfields goal.
Mick O'Dowd's men suffered a real blow when captain Mickey Keenan was shown a second yellow card for dissent after the restart but six unanswered points inside a devastating ten-minute spell turned the game on its head. Sean Sheridan had a goal controversially ruled out for an alleged square-ball infringement and Aughnamullen's wides tally went into double figures as they were edged out in the end by the narrowest of margins.
Aughnamullen, 2011 IFC quarter-final V Tyholland: G Mulligan; T Finnegan, S Dooney (0-1), N Keenan; E McArdle, S Ward, D Hamilton; P Mulligan, S Sheridan; P Dooney (0-1), P Bannigan, M Meegan; M Keenan (captain, 0-1), C Flanagan (0-1), C Keenan (1-5). Sub: M McArdle (0-1) for Meegan (27).
Reflecting on the year, manager Mick O'Dowd admits it was a bit of a mixed bag: "It was hit and miss, really. We started off quite well with three draws and a win in the league and we were going well. But we didn't keep that up. They are a very young team, with a lot of U21s, so they did well considering the age of the side, but I would still be disappointed overall. I think they could have gone a bit further.
"We were hoping to get to the league semi-finals and maybe sneak into a championship semi-final as well. But the league form was up and down and we were beaten by one point in the championship. We put in some wonderful performances, lost a lot of games by one or two points, and also took some hammerings. In fairness, Carrickmacross seemed to be way ahead of everybody else in intermediate and nobody could really compete with them.
"In the first round of the championship, we went in as underdogs against Drumhowan and produced a good performance to win. We were major underdogs against Currin but the lads were excellent in the second half. We couldn't live with Carrick' but against Tyholland we did well to come back from five points down with 14 men but the game then turned on what I can only describe as a Graham Geraghty moment. After that goal was disallowed, our very young team didn't have the composure and experience to see it out.
"We create plenty of scoring chances but don't put enough scores on the board. On average, we were scoring about eleven points per game but we need one more quality scoring forward in there. Missing Pete Dooney for half of the year didn't help and we were also without Colm and Aidan Flanagan as well as big Thomas Hughes. When you don't have a large panel to start with, you can't afford to be missing three or four players down the spine of the team. A small club like Aughnamullen can't cope with that.
"But the experience of 2011 should stand to them and this team isn't a million miles off winning silverware. They got to the U21 final and we have a very talented crop of young players. From our senior team, the entire full back and full forward lines would have been U21. The likes of Thomas Finnegan, James Keenan, Paul Mulligan and Pete and Sam Dooney - who had an excellent year - were all superb for us and these lads could all go on to play at a higher level. The future could be bright if we can keep these players together.
"But we're a small club and we seemed to be missing two or three players for every game. I don't think I put out the same team twice in 2011 and it's very difficult to find any consistency under those circumstances." Tweet
