Castledaly are in danger of becoming the 'nearly men' of the senior football championship after faltering in the latter stages once again last year. But according to vice-chairman and PRO Kieran Galvin, there is no reason for supporters to lose patience just yet. While Garrycastle and The Downs have dominated the senior football championship over the past five years, Castledaly have been there or thereabouts during that time without actually winning the Flanagan Cup. The ambitious south county outfit lost the finals of 2002 and 2004 to Garrycastle, while last season their interests were ended at the penultimate stage by eventual champions The Downs. After so many near misses, some Castledaly supporters might be wondering if they are destined never to make the breakthrough, but vice-chairman and PRO Kieran Galvin continues to take a positive outlook and is urging the fans to keep the faith. "It's fair to say that we've had more than our fair share of disappointments over the past few years, but I can tell you that the players remain as determined as ever to bring a first senior championship back to Castledaly," he says. "Last year we lost to The Downs by two points in the semi-final, and the year before that Garrycastle beat us by the same margin in the county final. We know that we're not that far off the mark and our aim for the coming year is to find that extra percentage point or missing ingredient that will carry us over the finishing line. "My advice to the supporters is to remain patient and continue to give their support to the players. It's still a relatively young team and they can still do it. That said I would like to see it happen sooner rather than later." Galvin, who is the Westmeath Independent's GAA correspondent, recalls how Lady Luck failed to smile on Castledaly during their semi-final defeat to The Downs. "There is no doubt that we had the chances to win that game. JP Casey missed a penalty in the first half and Adrian Kelly missed a goal chance which would have put us six points ahead at a crucial stage in the second half. If we had taken those chances, our season would have turned out very differently. "Also last year, we were weakened by the unavailability of Russell Casey, who was working abroad and James Galvin, who transferred to Kilanerin (Matty Forde's club) in Wexford. They were major losses and Russell is unlikely to be available again this year, although Damien Doyle is back after also missing out last year." Under the guidance of former Clara and Offaly player Vinny Henry, Castledaly opened their championship campaign with a 0-12 to 0-8 victory over St. Mary's, Rochfortbridge. The sides were level on no less than eight occasions in the opening 50 minutes, but Castledaly hit four unanswered points in the closing stages per MJ McLoughlin (two), Kenny Larkin and Gordon Duffy to land the spoils. The green and golds made it two wins from two against Ballymore, but their performance was far from impressive as they edged a tepid contest on a 1-9 to 0-10 scoreline. Apart from JP Casey, who scored 1-3 from play, Castledaly were a pale shadow of the team which went unbeaten for so long in 2004, and were left hanging on for the win after Ballymore staged a late rally. Old rivals Garrycastle came back to haunt Castledaly when they secured a 0-12 to 0-10 victory in round three. Both sides were weakened by injury, but Castledaly had the look of winners until a late Garrycastle surge, which included three points from Paddy Mulvihill, decided the outcome. Castledaly were somewhat fortunate to salvage a 1-8 to 0-11 draw from their next outing against Mullingar Shamrocks. Vinny Henry's charges led by 0-7 to 0-5 at the interval, but they were outplayed for long stages of the second half as Shamrocks battled back to take the lead. Castledaly seemed to be facing certain defeat until full forward Paul Kelly availed of a goalkeeping error by Dermot Ryan to score an equalizing goal six minutes into stoppage time. Alan Fitzgerald then added a point to edge the southerners back in front, but there was still enough time for Shamrocks to draw level again through Fiachra Spellman. Castledaly needed to beat St. Malachy's in their final group match to make sure of their place in the knock-out stages and this they achieved after a titanic struggle. An Alan Kelly goal in the 44th minute catapulted Castledaly into a five-point lead, but St. Malachy's - who had already qualified for the quarter-final - staged a late recovery which left just two points, 1-11 to 1-9, between the sides at the final whistle. Vinny Henry's charges made light work of an understrength Tyrrellspass to ease into the last four. Tyrrellspass were boosted by an early goal from Ray Sheeran, but they failed to score again in the first half with the dismissal of Ronan Dunbar after 17 minutes doing nothing to help their cause. With JP Casey and Derek Heavin in fine scoring form, Castledaly led by 0-7 to 1-0 at the interval and hardly broke sweat in the second half as they cruised to a 0-15 to 1-2 victory. Castledaly's championship ended with a 0-13 to 1-8 defeat to The Downs in the semi-final. The black and ambers led by 0-6 to 0-4 at half-time after JP Casey drove a penalty low and wide in the 19th minute. But the southerners made a brilliant start to the second half, scoring a great goal through wing forward Paul Kelly, and two further points without reply to leave The Downs playing catch-up. The Downs' hopes appeared to suffer another setback when midfielder Noel Molloy suffered a broken ankle, but despite facing such adversity, were still able to grind out the win. Two pointed frees from Barry Conroy reduced the deficit to the minimum before his brother James kicked over the equalizing point in the 49th minute. A short time later, Tommy Cleary set up big midfielder Brendan Murtagh for the lead point, and although JP Casey levelled for Castledaly, injury-time scores from Cleary and James Conroy made sure of The Downs' place in the final. There was further disappointment for Castledaly when they surrendered their All-County Football League Division 1 title without putting up much of a fight. Despite recording a rare win over Garrycastle in the first round, Castledaly struggled to find consistency after that and ended up in a mid-table position. The season ended with Vinny Henry stepping down as manager after two relatively successful years at the helm. "Despite our failure to win the senior championship, Vinny's two-year tenure will be looked upon as a success," Kieran points out. "He guided us to a first Division 1 league title in his first year in charge and also brought us to the county final. Up until the county final, we had been unbeaten in all competitions, which was a fantastic achievement. "Last year also marked the end of Denis Fanning's four-year tenure as chairman. He did great work for the club during that time and his successor Alan Duffy would be the first to admit that he has a difficult act to follow." Encouragingly, Castledaly's conveyor belt of underage talent shows no sign of slowing down. In May, the green and golds won the delayed 2004 under 21 13-a-side championship crown following an emphatic 3-13 to 0-5 victory over Coralstown/Kinnegad at St. Loman's. Just a few months earlier, Coralstown/Kinnegad had recorded a comprehensive victory over Castledaly in the 15-a-side championship, but the southerners turned the tables in stunning fashion. Castledaly dominated throughout with Alan Kelly notching 2-2 and Stephen Kavanagh 1-3. This talented team was managed by Vinny Henry, Ollie McLoughlin and Noel Nugent. In December, Castledaly once again contested the minor football championship Division 2 final, but their hopes of a third victory on the trot were ended in heartbreaking circumstances by Bunbrosna. Managed by Eugene Costello, Mike Kelly and Enda Kelly, Castledaly looked to have done enough until Bunbrosna swooped for a goal in the fifth minute of stoppage-time to force extra-time. Castledaly never recovered from that setback and two more goals from Sean Walsh and Simon Maher in extra-time gave Bunbrosna a hugely flattering 3-10 to 0-13 win. Along with the under 21 success, the other highlight of 2005 was the unveiling of the new floodlights at Castledaly's juvenile pitch in St. Kieran's Park. The lights were switched on by Leinster Council chairman Liam O'Neill and to mark the occasion, the under 10s of Athlone and Tubber met in the Coughlan Cup final. "We are continuing to produce good young footballers and hopefully this will lead to us winning that elusive senior championship in the not too distant future," Galvin concludes. Tweet

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