One-time St Nicholas player Darren Malone is very much at home in the Dreadnots colours. Now part of the Dreadnots furniture, the industrious midfielder captained the Clogherhead men in 2003, as the Black & Reds once more flattered to deceive... It was a strange sort of year for Dreadnots. One minute, they appeared to have a foot in the knock-out stages of the IFC and again seemed on course for senior football ... next thing we knew they were spiralling into a Division 2A relegation dogfight. Intermediate football beckons again next year and the Clogherhead representatives will be hoping to give a better account of themselves than they did in 2003. Reflecting on the disappointing events of '03, Darren Malone, who acted as club captain for the year and also lined out at centre back for the Louth juniors, admits that Dreadnots didn't set the world alight: "It all went wrong for us in the championship. Despite losing our first game, we got back on track with two wins but then fell away at the crucial stage of the competition, losing our last outing to our bogey team, O'Connells. Things just fell apart with that defeat. We went from being on the verge of a return to senior football to a relegation battle. That certainly wasn't how we'd planned it!" Intermediate football in the Wee County can be notoriously competitive, but Darren felt it was even tighter than usual in 2003: "There was nothing between any of the teams in Division 2A and just about everyone slipped into the fight against relegation. It was unbelievably competitive and we ended up on a long run without a win, which obviously didn't help our prospects. "When you start losing games and people begin to lose interest, it can be almost impossible to turn it around again. That's the position we found ourselves in. "From the perspective of our younger players, I think some of them probably won too much too soon and perhaps complacency set in as a result. We had such a good run when we went from junior to senior in successive years that they might have felt it was just a matter of turning up. But it doesn't work that way and we've had a rude awakening. If the work isn't put in, then the results won't materialise." Dreadnots were in Group A of the 2003 Louth IFC. The seasiders didn't exactly get off to an ideal start at Castlebellingham in early June when Sean O'Mahonys inflicted a one-point defeat, 0-9 to 0-8. As expected, Dreadnots bounced back to win their next two outings against group whipping St Mochtas (2-10 to 1-9) and St Fechins (1-8 to 1-5). They went into the last group game against table-toppers O'Connells needing victory to force a play-off. The game took place in Dunleer on July 19th and the Castlebellingham men prevailed by two points, 1-10 to 1-8. It was a demoralising end to Dreadnots' championship aspirations. Those two slip-ups against O'Mahonys and O'Connells proved costly: "It was important that we got off to a good start and losing the opening game put us on the back foot," Darren notes. "If we'd beaten O'Mahonys we'd have had a relatively easy path through to the knock-outs. "They had already beaten us at home in the league but we still fancied out chances of taking them. We were anticipating a win but we didn't take our chances on the day and paid the price. Even Colin [Kelly] missed a couple of easy enough chances towards the end and when that happens you know it's not going to be your day." Two wins later, Dreadnots were back on course. But high-flying O'Connells - who had denied them a place in senior football at the tail end of the 2002 season - still stood between them and a possible play-off place. "The pressure was on going into that last game because we knew we still had a chance of forcing a three-way play-off. We got off to a good start and held our own for the whole game but didn't take our scores. Our old ghosts returned to haunt us again. It was the same story all year - we just didn't seem to be able to put teams away. We competed well all year and never suffered any heavy defeats, but we weren't taking our scores and had too many narrow defeats. Unfortunately two of those came in the championship." Even though the 2002 season had dragged out into December (culminating in a shattering senior play-off defeat at the hands of Kilkerley Emmets), Dreadnots knuckled down again in late January/early February 2003 under the watchful eye of team mentors Sean McEntee and Eamonn Lynch. A new season beckoned and there would be no rest for the wicked! "We had good numbers at training until the sun came out - which is the opposite to every other club. For some reason we actually tend to have a drop-off when the weather improves. We've a very small panel anyway, picking from a squad of 19 or 20 lads all year. We even had to scrap our second team this year, which meant the fringe players weren't getting any football at all. That didn't help..." What objectives were set out at the start of the campaign? "Our target was to go back up to senior. We'd just had a very long 2002 season, which started in the first week of April and didn't end until December 10th when we lost the promotion play-off to Kilkerley. We were determined to come back even stronger but to be honest I think the rigours of that campaign had a lot to do with our demise in 2003. "The manner in which 2002 ended was a bitter blow. It was devastating to miss out on promotion after having done so well all year. We only lost two games in the league all season - the final two - and still missed out! There were twelve points between us and the third-placed team in the division ... for most of 2003, there were only about six points between top and second-from-bottom in the same division." Having made an indifferent start in the league, the championship was always going to be Dreadnots' most likely avenue of a senior return. Losing the first Group A game left then with their collective backs to the wall, but successive wins thereafter left the Black & Reds right back in contention. However, Darren admits that the cracks had started to show: "In fairness, the games against St Mochtas and the Fechins were two that we were expected to win, but we weren't exactly convincing in either match. The writing was probably on the wall at that stage because we clearly weren't firing on all cylinders and it was going to take a massive improvement - particularly in front of the posts - to beat O'Connells." From a personal point of view, as team captain, Darren was determined that Dreadnots would put up a good show, but it simply wasn't to be. There's still plenty of optimism in the air, however, and the 2003 captain is confident that the club can turn it around. Darren is convinced that the Clogherhead men are more than good enough to make a major impact in 2004: "If the preparations are done and the attitude is right, Dreadnots are well able to play senior football. As Roy Keane said: 'Fail to prepare, prepare to fail'. We have to get the preparations right. I have no hesitation whatsoever in saying that if we could get back up senior again we'd be able to stay up. The first year we went up after winning the [2000] intermediate championship was probably a false dawn, but we're older and more experienced now and I think we'd hold our own." Darren himself has been on the Dreadnots first team for eight years, winning a junior league and championship double in 1999 and an intermediate league and championship double the following year. He also collected a JFC medal with the Nicks in 1995. He was centre half back with the Louth juniors in 2003, and also lined out for the county juniors in 2000. Looking ahead to 2004, Darren admits it's going to be a defining year for Dreadnots: "Our objective will be to play more consistently than we did in '03 and to maybe try and get a few more young players through. We also have to get our second team up and running again, because it's a huge disadvantage not having a second team. If we sort that out, everyone will have regular football. "The core of our JFC and IFC winning team is still intact and we have a lot of talented young players who have plenty of experience and are also still the right side of 25. Looking at the age profile of our team and the ability we have, it's certainly not all doom and gloom. "We still have a lot of cause for optimism and we intend to make our presence felt again next year." Tweet

Most Read Stories