Against all the odds, Ballymachugh retained their senior championship status in 2003. Their highly-rated defender Liam Donohoe was at the heart of the club's success in that respect. It's a sore of annoyance to long-standing Ballymachugh gaels that the rest of the county seem to summarise the Ballyheelan-based club's annual efforts as being more about perspiration than inspiration. But while the club may not traditionally have been bracketed by purists' as being among their favourite footballing units, the green and golds have admirers countywide. Certainly no club likes going head to head with them, especially away from home or in the white heat of championship fare. For their sins, Lacken Celtic found out to their cost last Summer just how resolute and gritty Ballymachugh's finest are these days. Ballymachugh's near-neighbours were handed a 1-11 to 2-5 defeat at Kingspan/Breffni Park in a thrilling opening round tie. "Luckily we played some of our best football all year against Lacken and by beating them we took a lot of the pressure off ourselves," tigerish defender Liam Donohoe recalls. Indeed, the ace central defender doesn't begin to play down the significance of beating the Celts. "Most people expected the other teams in the group, Crosserlough and Cavan Gaels, to fight it out for the quarter-final spots and we couldn't argue with that," Liam contends. "We had drawn with Lacken in the league a few weeks before the championship at home and we knew that it would be 50/50 again in terms of a championship win. Getting the better of them was just the start we wanted." Certainly Ballymachugh produced a gritty and at times gritty opening display to ease home three point victors. Ballymachugh deserved to collect what was more than useful brace of championship points and they ought to have taken immense confidence from their debut win. Certainly the Ballyheelan-based outfit played the game with a swagger and a pace that seemed to suggest that they had the confidence and the self-belief to lay the foundations for an extended run in the blue riband competition. More aggressive in the close exchanges and more mobile off the ball, Ballymachugh began by doing the simple things and in the first quarter it was a policy that worked like a dream as a Gavin Smith goal in the 5th minute helped catapult them into a more than useful 1-3 to 0--0 lead after just 11 minutes. "Gavin's (Smith) goal was a very good one and it gave us a good cushion to keep them at bay after that. " It was a local derby match and we definitely raised our game as we knew we would have to." Sadly that was as good as it got for Donohoe and co. in the championship. The big-hitters, Cavan Gaels and Crosserlough, each proved their superiority in the remaining group matches. "The game against Cavan Gaels was over after the first ten minutes," Liam is sad to say. Indeed it was simply all too easy for Cavan Gaels in late July as they overwhelmed Ballymachugh by 5-16 to 0-5 at Kingspan/Breffni Park. Minus centre-back Brendan Sweeney, Ballymachugh had the proverbial nightmare and showed little of the form which had downed Lacken. From the moment livewire attacker Sean Johnston opened the scoring after 64 seconds and added a goal three minutes later, Ballymachugh found themselves rooted on the backfoot and with nowhere to hide. By half-time, the county town side had opened up a 2-9 to 0-2 lead. "We were just caught cold. The game was over before we knew it. They showed no mercy. "I thought they were just so fast and I definitely think that they'll win the Ulster club title within the next few years. "We expected to maybe get beaten by them in championship but not so easily. "They only beat us by a point in the league in Ballyheelan a short time before that and we didn't go into the championship game without hope." Unfortunately for Liam and Ballymachugh, the Gaels defeat was compounded by injuries picked up in that game by a trio of key figures on the team, including Liam himself plus the Baxter brothers, Stephen and Niall. And while the latter of the triumvirate recovered sufficiently to take his place on the bench for the next match against Crosserlough, Liam and Stephen Baxter weren't so lucky. "I tore ligaments in my shoulder. At the time we played Cavan Gaels I wasn't sure what damage I had done. " I just knew the shoulder was sore. I played for the rest of the game but after getting it looked at, the medical people told me that I had to rest it for six weeks. "That was basically the end of my championship and practically the rest of the year gone too," Liam laments. And when Ballymachugh did cross swords with their neighbours from Kilnaleck, the loss through injury of Paud Cullen early in the first half only served to compound Ballymachugh's difficulties. Not surprisingly given all their troubles, Ballymachugh lost out by 0-7 to 0-12 to the black and ambers at Mullahoran in late July. "We always feel that on a good day, we can beat Crosserlough but the injuries worked against us plus the fact that they got five quick points without reply after half-time which really set us back," the 24-year old stopper maintains. Not one to look back too much, Liam is hoping that his luck will change in the coming year and that he will stay injury-free. His team-mates and team-manager Ciaran O'Reilly will also be hoping that they see the best out of the inspirational centre-back in 2004. And if Liam manages to rekindle the form which saw him invited into senior county training by erstwhile manager Mattie Kerrigan then all the better. On that point, one wonders does the Monaghan Mushrooms employee ever regret not taking up the invitation to mix it at training with the county's finest? "It's not something I have thought too much about. "It wasn't a case of me not wanting to play for my county or not wanting to commit the time to training. "It was a lot to do with the fact that I was finishing my studies at college in Dublin and I made them my priority. "The invitation just came around at the wrong time for me, that's all." But as a new season looms large on the horizon, Liam is pretty optimistic that all things can click into place for Ballymachugh. He says he rates team boss O'Reilly very highly and his decision to stay at the helm for the coming year comes as a "great boost to the club". Similarly, Liam feels that the likely return to the fold of former star men Richie Fitzsimons (after a sojourn in Australia) and Gerry Plunkett will be like two new major transfers to the club. So all the pieces in the jigsaw should be in place at Ballyheelan by the time next Summer comes around? "I'm not saying that. We can be our own worst enemies at times as players. "We sometimes don't push out the boat when it's called for. "Our mental approach to training and games isn't always what it should be. "Sometimes we can play the sort of football which is as good as you'll see in the county but we have to get the bit between our teeth on a more consistent basis - that all goes for everyone on the panel, including me of course." Ahead of the commence of the new leagues, Liam is hoping that Ballymachugh can garner some morale-boosting wins early in the season so as to build up confidence for a hoped-for decent shot at getting out of their group in the championship. "We've been playing senior championship football since 1999 when we won the intermediate but it's time we took it on from just managing to keep our status. "We have to push ourselves more, collectively I mean, all the players. "A lot of us have won a few medals at underage and about half of the team that lost out to Mullahoran in the under 21 final, after a replay, a few years ago are still playing. But we must look to see what we can achieve in the future. " It's time to move on and even though we'd have a very small pick, we have enough talent in the squad we have to at least get into the quarter-finals. "I know I didn't set the world on fire last year with my displays but if we can all step it up a bit, we can surprise a few of the big names next Summer." Tweet

Most Read Stories