In 2008, Oliver Plunketts laid down a solid base for the future. Having disappointed in '06 and '07, the Drogheda club made significant strides during the course of a season that saw the south of the county in general move forward. They enjoyed a decent league run and reached the last four in the IFC, performances which leave them in good stead for future challenges. Cian Matthews, who has represented the Wee County at minor and U21 grades, believes '08 can be considered a relative success. The Plunketts finished mid-table in Division Two but - boosted by a powerful finish - they weren't exactly a million miles away from the business end of the table. In the intermediate football championship, the Slane Road men sneaked out of their group on the back of early victories over Sean McDermotts and Hunterstown Rovers, qualifying for the last four with a two-point quarter-final defeat of Clan na Gael. Na Piarsaigh proved too strong at Dromiskin on Sunday September 14, but the Plunketts had laid down a marker for coming campaigns. "We were happy enough with our form," Cian confirms. "We just fell short in the championship but by and large everybody was happy compared to the previous year. A lot of the minor team came through and it was left to the rest of us to step up to the mark. All in all, we think we did quite well and we feel that we have established a solid platform that we can build upon in the next few years." At the start of the year, there was no specific target as such. The Plunketts had surrendered their senior status and then struggled to adapt to intermediate fare in the preceding two seasons, so they simply had to turn it around. The key word around the clubhouse was 'improvement' and the players were mostly concerned with producing better performances than what had become the norm in recent years. "In 2007, we didn't win a single game in the championship and that was extremely disappointing, so this year we literally took it one game at a time. We set a target of three wins in the championship and we knew that would set us up for the knockout stage. We just took it one game at a time and we genuinely didn't look beyond that." Despite these seemingly modest objectives, it would be unfair to say that expectations were low or that the team exceeded its potential. "Looking at the team, we expected to be there or thereabouts and don't forget a lot of these lads have played senior only two years ago. We were more organised this year and it showed in the results." Having navigated a path to the semi-finals, were the players then disappointed to bow out of contention at the penultimate phase? "Yes, I think that's always the case. Once you get to the knockout stage, you will always be disappointed when you go out. We were glad to get that far but then disappointed not to go further. That's only natural. But we couldn't have any arguments at all over our semi-final defeat. The best team won on the day and we never really looked like winning that game. So, fair play to Na Piarsaigh and no complaints whatsoever from us" The game in question was a 2-13 to 2-8 defeat to the Point Road men at Cluskey Park on the second Sunday of September. Eight days earlier, the Plunketts beat the Clans by 0-12 to 0-10 in their quarter-final at Louth village. They had finished third in Group Two, with five points from as many outings - one point more than Geraldines. Oliver Plunketts kicked their group programme off with a 2-6 to 0-8 defeat of Sean McDermotts in Ardee on Saturday May 3 and made it back-to-back victories when edging out Hunterstown by 0-12 to 0-10 at Collon on May 10. A 0-10 each draw with O'Raghallaighs at Dunleer on Sunday June 22 all but ensured passage to the knockout stage. Successive narrow defeats to Na Piarsaigh (2-8 to 2-7) and Geraldines (1-9 to 0-10) on August 9 and 15 failed to prevent the Drogheda club from progressing. In Division Two, the Plunketts opened with wins over Na Piarsaigh and Hunterstown and lost to Dreadnots before beating O'Raghallaighs. They lost to the McDermotts and Glyde, then finished strongly with wins over St Mochtas, Clan na Gael, Roche Emmets and O'Connells, with a draw against Geraldines sandwiched in between. They had made an absolutely devastating start to the year with wins over both Mattock Rangers (0-10 to 0-9) and Newtown Blues (4-7 to 4-4) in the ACC / Sheelan Cup. Other results in the subsidiary league competition saw them beat Geraldines, draw with Dundalk Young Irelands and lose to Naomh Mairtin. Looking ahead to 2009, Cian is hoping that Oliver Plunketts can build upon the sound base they laid down during the season gone by. "We did pretty well, finishing just outside the top four in the league and reaching the semi-finals of the intermediate championship, so we're hoping to push on towards Division One in the league. It's important that we push on in the league. In the championship, we'd obviously like to get to a quarter-final or a semi-final again but we won't look that far. I'm sure it'll be the same approach again - one game at a time. We'll aim for a top four finish in the league and what happens in the championship happens in the championship" First -team management duties were handled by Cian's father Mickey Matthews and Robbie Brady in 2008. They got stuck in early as the team set about improving upon the abject disappointment of the previous year. "Myself and Sean Brassil were with the county U21s, but the rest of the lads started back in the second week of January," Cian notes. "We held our players meeting in the last week of December and started with pre-season training three weeks later." A former county minor as well, Cian figured for the Louth U21s in both 2007 and 2008. As for the prospect of featuring for the seniors at some point, he states: "I don't think I'm at that level at the moment. It's everybody's dream to play for their county and I'm no different, but at the minute it's all about the club." The young attacker says the general mood in the Oliver Plunketts camp is positive. "There's a great buzz about the place and everybody is looking forward to next year. The new Astroturf pitch is in and that's a great facility to have. It keeps us going all year around and there are always a few of us over there - it's a good way of keeping the team together. "We're all looking forward to 2009. We had a good year last year and we have plenty to look forward to. A good foundation has been put down. If we go one step further, we would be in a county final and anything can happen in a final. We've done some good work so now we want to keep moving forward." Tweet

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