As the last man to lift the Anglo-Celt Cup for the Breffni County, Stephen King is viewed as the model figure by his young Killeshandra team. With a new experience of coaching in the intermediate tier this past year, he reflects on a season where safety was the top priority after such success in 2007. After their impressive double triumph at junior level in 2007, many had cited Killeshandra Leaguers as the young, up and coming premier side in the county, perhaps even capable of winning a wide-open intermediate championship on their first tour. However, by the time they'd made their exit out of the backdoor at the final stage, co-manager, and team mentor, Stephen King had swiftly pointed out that retaining second-tier status had been the plan for this developing young side all along. "Our main objective was to hold our Division Two and Intermediate Championship status. Anything above that was always going to be a bonus from our point of view after coming up from junior," admitted King. "We got off to a good start in the league, which is what we were targeting to try and secure our league place before the championship had started." The Leaguers entered into the unknown territory of the Cavan Intermediate Football Championship last summer without two of their key players in midfield score-getter Declan McKiernan and steadfast centre-back Damien Higgins, both of whom had jetted off to the US for two months in late July. The pair's departure would prove a real blow in their first round meeting against a Bailieborough side with mountains of experience ranking up to senior level. Killeshandra's new life in the middle section of the county began with a trip to Ballymachugh where an opening league fixture would show early signs of this enthusing outfit punching at its own weight with a 3-5 to 2-4 victory. Wins over Redhills, Cootehill, and Drung soon followed, meaning the junior champions had been sitting at the summit of Division Two after the opening month of fixtures was played. Although clearly delighted with the opening start, both management and players shrugged off any premature suggestions of a promotion bid at the first attempt being on the cards. "Well, the way I looked at it was that we would need at least 10 or 11 points to make sure we would stay in Division Two," revealed King. "So as long as we had everyone together at the start of the year we were going to make that push." Indeed, King, along with co-manager Tom Downes and assistant coach 'Junior' McKiernan and the rest of the squad, knew that it would be in the best interest for the team to try and gather up as many points as soon as possible so long as the McKiernan and Higgins were still available to them. Killeshandra hit their first bump on the road to safety on their visit to Drumgoon in late April with a 0-12 to 0-8 defeat, but still remained a comfortable 11 places from the drop with almost half their games played and eight points on the board, sitting pretty at the top of the county's second division. An exhibition of scoring at home to Kingscourt saw the hosts put up a massive 1-19 tally on a senior championship side that had the Stars licking their wounds as they headed out the gates of Pairc Phadraig Ui Dhoibhlinn, but more importantly from a Leaguers point of view it meant that they sat top of the table for a second successive month going into May. A loss away to neighbours Drumlane made way for defeats from Cavan Gaels and Killinkere before league status for the following year was assured with a 0-14 to 0-10 victory at home to Bailieborough Shamrocks - a side they'd be facing a month later in the IFC. As any GAA governess will tell you, league and championship are two very different obstacles and as his native club embarked on a first IFC appearance since 1999, King believed his team had plenty to be motivated about; citing the previous year's Ulster Club JFC loss to Tyrone champions Rock at the last four stage as something that could have been for his coveted players. "We were disappointed with the way we let the Ulster thing slip," he admitted. "It had been a long year in the race for promotion out of Division Three and winning the junior championship, and we were desperately disappointed with the way we went out to Rock." Following their experience in the junior championship in the summer of 2007, where they triumphed via the qualifiers after seven games, the Leaguers weren't too worried over coming up against one of the IFC's contenders. "We would have been happy to have gotten Bailieborough," said King. "To us it didn't matter who we got as we knew we'd have to beat the best anyway if we were going to go the whole way. "Our preparations couldn't have been better and in this club you have a great bunch of lads willing to put the effort in at training and even train by themselves. They are 100 per cent committed, but our only real setbacks going into the game where the losses of Declan (McKiernan) and Damien (Higgins)." A tally of 1-4 from Bailieborough corner-forward Paul Sharkey proved the Leaguers' undoing in late July as they went down to the Shamrocks on a score-line of 1-9 to 0-7, with the absence of Higgins and particularly McKiernan's scoring ability evident on that summer's say at Breffni Park. "We were disappointed with the result that day," the former Cavan skipper conceded. "In our performance in the first-half we owned the ball but couldn't make that count on the scoreboard and paid the ultimate price. "We didn't play the same in the second-half and all credit to Bailieborough they put in a good display to win the match." At that the Saffron and Whites entered the backdoor for a second successive year, albeit in a different section, where west Cavan opponents Swanlinbar provided the first challenge. Still without their missing duo, the burden would lie on the shoulders of the likes of County Under 21 defender Tomas O'Reilly and stand-in free-taker Justin Hayes. The Leaguers romped to a 11-point victory of the St Mary's club before disposing of Ballymachugh with a late Rory Braiden goal to reach the final of the intermediate championship qualifiers where they would take on Cootehill, with both Higgins' and McKiernan's return from across the Atlantic now imminent. Killeshandra dominated the match possession-wise in the first-half, but failed to take their chances over the opening half-hour. Their returning pair came on as early substitutes but couldn't save their side from enviable defeat in the dying stages where Cootehill popped over two points in the added on minutes to win the game 0-12 to 1-7. With that the Leaguers' season came to an abrupt end, but their co-manager had no real complaints by the end of it all. "Once again, we had the majority of the ball in the first-half but credit to them (Cootehill) they played quite well in the second-half and with the game level at full-time we gave possession right back to them on two occasions in injury-time and they put those two balls over the bar. "Silly things like that can cost you games and it cost us that day, but I can't take anything away from Cootehill they probably deserved to win the match overall anyway," grasped King. However, things weren't done and dusted from a club point of view. Killeshandra still had plenty of Ladies and Underage involvement in finals throughout the county in the latter part of the season. On the Ladies' football front several of Killeshandra's talented footballers joined forces with neighbouring parish Arva to capture both the league and championship in the junior grade. Blaithin O'Reilly, Laura Feeney, Siobhan Sweeney, Melissa King and Bronagh Fleming were all part of the side that saw off Laragh to land the county junior championship and then pipped St Finbar's by a point to capture the Division Three title to complete a successful double for the St Patrick's club in September. Feile On the underage scene things are looking as prosperous as ever for the Killeshandra club. The club hosted a Wicklow side in the U14 Boys Feile and competed against Wicklow winners (Rathnew),Carlow winners (Eire Og) and Aughadrumsee (Fermanagh). The last game played on Pairc Phadraig Ui Dhoibhlinn before development work started was lost against Rathnew before travelling to Aughadrumsee to play the hosts and Eire Og where further lossess were suffered but, importantly, friends were made throughtout the weekend. However, Killeshandra had won the skills competition qualifier and Conor McGearty would go onto Lacken the same day to compete for a place in the skills final. He succeeded and the Leaguers would have a club representative in the finals at Breffni Park on the Sunday. The promising young attacker finished second only to beaten by a fraction of a second. Under 13's After capturing the Roinn C Championship title last year, the club's Under 13 team advanced at a higher level this year and went all the way to the semi-finals stages in Roinn B where they were defeated by Butlersbridge in Drumlane. Under 14's capture championship title One of the highlights for the Killeshandra Leaguers club in the 2008 season was the triumph of their Under 14 team in a dramatic Roinn B Championship final back in September. After finding themselves unfortunate to lose out on the league title late on in May to Crosserlough, the Leaguers defeated Ballyhaise and Gowna before storming into the championship final where they registered a two-point victory over Ballymachugh at Breffni Park to capture the title. A Darren McGrath goal got Killeshandra off to an ideal start early on in the match but they would rue their missed chances when Liam Buchanan hit the net for the opponents before the points of Michael Coyle and Stephen Harten sent Ballymachugh in front. Conor Higgins was unlucky not to have restored the lead for the Leaguers after his stinging shot was saved by Daragh Goldrick, but is was another Conor (McGearty) who made sure that a 2-5 to 1-4 advantage would lie in Killeshandra's favour at the break. Ballymachugh had hit two quick scores from the restart, but a well struck Conor Higgins free along with the points of Aaron Brady and McGearty saw Killeshandra maintain their lead before Stephen Harten had the gap down to just one with minutes remaining in the game. While the two Conors, Smith and Higgins, were both outstanding at centre-field for the Leaguers, Ballymachugh still mounted a last attempt at a comeback with Aaron McFarlane pointing to level the game. However Higgins, who was at the heart of everything good about Killeshandra's play on the day, fired over two late frees which proved the difference as the young Leaguers finally sealed their Under 14 title for the year on a score-line of 2-9 to 2-7. Killeshandra (Under 14 Roinn B v Ballymachugh): Ronan Sweeney; Niamh Finlay, Adrian Maguire, Darren Reilly; James Denneny, Tommy Sheridan, Dean Farrelly; Conor Higgins (0-3), Conor Smith (0-2); Cian O'Hanlon, Aaron Brady (0-1), Conor McGearty (1-2); Padraig Phair, Daren McGrath (1-1), Dan Rooney. Subs: Eddie Patterson, John Gilsenan, Turlough Grey Pitch Development Work on a new pitch development at Killeshandra's home grounds of Pairc Phadraig Ui Dhoibhlinn has faced some delay due to the torrid weather endured over last summer, nevertheless it is still expected that the work be completed by summer 2009. The opening phase of the new development sees the pitch closed until next spring where pitch lengthening and widening, drainage and rsurfacing, re-establishment of running-track, provision for flood lighting and field surrounds landscaping are all set to take place. An all-weather training pitch is also on the agenda to be supported by floodlights along with two new dressing rooms to go with the existing pair. Funding for this new development has arrived through a number of sources, including a development draw, with prizes in the excess of 21,000 euro, a grant aid, club sponsorship, advertising on the club's new website (www.killeshandragaa.com) and the Killeshandra Leaguers lotto. Tweet

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