Having temporarily flirted with relegation following a sluggish start to 2003, Tyholland turned their season around dramatically and were ultimately unfortunate not to return to senior ranks. Star attacker Paul Askin reflects on a peculiar year and forecasts a more consistent effort from the club in 2004. Recent years have been something of a rollercoaster ride for Tyholland St Patrick's and 2003 was certainly no different. After winning the 2001 intermediate league, Tyholland played senior football for the first time in '02. Their first ever senior match produced a famous Division One victory away to mighty Castleblayney Faughs and Tyholland almost caused a sensation in their first SFC quarter-final appearance. Therein, the senior newcomers scared the living daylights out of eventual champions Clontibret before succumbing to narrow defeat. Tyholland had invested tremendous effort into that historic campaign and could definitely consider themselves unfortunate to suffer demotion at the season's end. They went into 2003 bitterly disappointed to have lost their senior status but equally determined to bounce straight back to the top table. Having done enough in '02 to suggest they were good enough to rub shoulders with the top teams in the county, Tyholland went into the new campaign hellbent on nicking one of the two promotion spots. A poor start to the year effectively put paid to the club's IFC prospects but an impressive series of results in the latter half of the season was enough to earn a Division Two semi-final berth ... a remarkable accomplishment as Tyholland had looked like relegation candidates only a few months earlier! However, the very thought of slipping down to junior level was an anathema to all associated with the club and a management reshuffle saw senior county selector Noel Marron drafted in as manager mid-season. Marron's arrival had the desired effect and the players were completely revitalised, salvaging their season with some excellent displays. Having booked their place in the semi-final stage of the McAviney Cup with an inspired late burst, Tyholland appeared to have gathered sufficient momentum to go on and clinch promotion. Instead, they were pipped in heartbreaking circumstances, losing the 'semi' to Inniskeen after extra time. The game took place in Inniskeen on Sunday November 9th and the home side eventually prevailed by 1-11 to 1-9, before going on to beat Doohamlet in the final. Tyholland started brightly and led by 1-4 to 0-2 at the interval, the goal coming from Paul Askin. However, despite being reduced to 14 men, Inniskeen dominated the second half and the sides were level (1-7 apiece) at the end of full time. During the 20 additional minutes, the winners outscored Noel Marron's side by 0-4 to 0-2. It was a disappointing end to Tyholland's brave rally for promotion. Tellingly, their two-man full forward line of Askin (1-5) and Raymond Ronaghan (0-4) accounted for all Tyholland's scores in the semi-final. What made the result doubly disappointing for Tyholland was the fact that the Grattans also eliminated them from the intermediate championship (almost six months earlier - way back on May 24th). Their only other championship outing of the year culminated in defeat at the hands of eventual IFC winners Aghabog. Paul Askin had a superb year in the Tyholland full forward line and was also a member of Monaghan's national football league squad. Looking back over the incident-packed '03 season, he notes: "We didn't start well at all. Des Patton was in charge at the start of the year and he introduced some new ideas but unfortunately they just didn't work out for us. "Things went from bad to worse and Des decided to step down and the committee moved quickly to put a new management team in place. Noel Marron and Frank Brady were appointed and Sean McCoy came in as a selector. The change freshened the whole camp up and things started to take off. We went on a good run in the league and shot up the table to earn a semi-final spot." It was a dramatic recovery. At the time the new backroom team was appointed, a semi-final spot already looked out of reach. Paul reveals: "When Noel took charge, his aim was simply to avoid relegation. That's how bad things looked. However, after his first four games in charge, his priorities changed. He brought us together and told us that we were shifting our goals. We were now aiming for a top-four place and promotion." Amazingly, Tyholland confirmed their place in the knock-out phase of the Division Two league by beating Corduff (who were relegated along with Oram) in their final league game. The transformation had been incredible and it looked like there would be no stopping the Tyholland men. A note of caution, however: their semi-final opponents were also determined to salvage their own season, having taken Aghabog to three games in the semi-final of the intermediate championship before bowing out. The stage was set for a huge clash ... and so it proved. "Our spirits were high and morale in the camp was good going into the semi-final. Noel was getting the best out of the team and everybody was training well and playing well. Unfortunately the ball just didn't fall our way in the semi-final. "It was a game we could - and probably should - have won. We were six points up at one stage in the second half but when they had the man sent off it seemed to lift them. An unfortunate goalkeeping error gifted them a goal and we ended up having to score a late point to force extra time. "When it went into extra time, I think the three tough championship games they'd had against Aghabog stood to them. Their fitness showed and they went on to prove how good a side they are by beating Doohamlet in the final." Missing out on promotion was a big blow to Tyholland. Their objective at the start of 2003 was a return to senior football and anything less was always going to leave them disgruntled and unimpressed. Paul Askin confirms: "We had a meeting at the start of the year and our aim was to win the intermediate double. But nothing went right in the first five or six games and the heads dropped. Personally, I never believed for a minute that we'd get relegated. The thought never entered my mind. We have far too many good players in the squad to go down to junior. "But we still needed someone to come in and turn things around, and Noel Marron did a great job. He commands a lot of respect without ever having to raise his voice. Everyone listens to every word he says. He got the players training and playing for him and I thought we'd beat Inniskeen." At the end of the season, the Donaghmoyne man indicated that he wouldn't be available to manage the team in '04. He had done his part, though, and had Tyholland playing with belief, conviction and purpose. If they carry that momentum forward into the new season, they will be a formidable proposition. "Hopefully we'll have a new manager installed before Christmas and we'll be ready to knuckle down in training again. We're still a young team and we intend to be pushing for promotion next year. We know we can give a much better account of ourselves than we did this year." One of the club's priorities will be to get off to a better start. They'll also strive for a much-improved showing in the championship - their '03 IFC campaign was almost a non-event, as Paul affirms: "Noel hadn't been in charge long enough to get us fired up for the championship. The Aghabog game came too soon ... it was only three weeks into his reign and we lost by two points in the end. We then came in the back door and lost to Inniskeen. We had a lot of injury problems that day and didn't play well at all. "We led by seven or eight points at one stage early on but their midfield got on top and they got loads of ball into Fergal Duffy and Paul Meegan, who gave us a roasting. Myself and Raymond [Ronaghan] might as well have been standing at The Diamond in Monaghan for the second half because the ball didn't come into us at all!" Tyholland made history by going senior at the end of the 2001 season and Paul is hopeful there's plenty more where that came from: "Winning the intermediate league two years ago was the high point of the club's history. Malachy O'Rourke was the manager and he brought us to unprecedented heights. "We went straight back down but still made quite an impact at senior level. We were nine points ahead of Clontibret at half time in our SFC quarter-final and that performance shows that we're well capable of playing senior football. There's a lot more in the Tyholland tank. "Our oldest player is Mark Finnegan at 29. We have plenty of experience too as Cyril and Raymond Ronaghan, Kevin McQuaid, Paddy Hughes and myself have all played for Monaghan at various levels, so we should be pushing hard next year. Gary McQuaid, who also played for the county, has been in Australia for the past 18 months or so and he's been a serious miss to the club." Paul himself played two years county minor, one year with the Monaghan under 21s, and made two NFL appearances in 2003, only to be omitted when the panel was trimmed just before the championship. He says he'd dearly love to feature more prominently for his county in future seasons. What can we expect from Tyholland in 2004? "I learned more from playing senior football with Tyholland in one season than I did in my whole career - and I want some more of that! It's a better class of football and there's less cynical play. That's what we aspire towards. We're a total football team, so senior football suits us down to the ground. We beat 'Blayney and Magheracloone in our first two away games last year, so we know what we can do," concludes the talented Tyholland marksman who has also played McRory Cup with St Macartan's College and Sigerson Cup with Dundalk IT. Tweet

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