Glen Emmets were prominent in all three junior competitions and were decidedly unfortunate to finish 2003 empty-handed. But their performances are a source of encouragement ... Glen Emmets enjoyed an excellent 2003. The Tullyallen men were very much in the shake-up for all three junior competitions and also enjoyed some notable underage successes. In addition, extensive renovation work at Cusack Park means their home will soon be regarded as one of the best venues in the Wee County. All in all, it was a year the club's activists and followers can remember with a tremendous degree of satisfaction ... particularly as the Emmets had hardly set the world on fire in recent seasons and not a great deal was expected from them in '03 either. The Green & Reds - who didn't even have the use of their own pitch for home games - confounded their critics with some stellar performances and an exceptional level of consistency over the course of the season. They were in the hunt for all three of the County Board's junior trophies, reaching the final of the Kevin Mullen Shield with superb early-season form (five wins out of six), the penultimate round of the junior championship, and pushing hard for Division Three league honours all year (eventually finishing third). There were three outstanding junior sides in the Wee County in 2003 - Glen Emmets, Dowdallshill and Westerns. The quest for silverware essentially came down to a series of head-to-heads between the three. Somebody has to miss out. Emmets made an inspired start to the season and quickly booked their place in the subsidiary league decider. However, the final of the Kevin Mullen Shield - against Dowdallshill - wasn't played until late in the year, the second Friday of October. As it turned out, the Dundalk club came out on top to complete a famous treble of junior competitions. The '03 JFC was a strange competition. For the first time, the junior championship was played on an initial group basis. It was divided into two groups, with four clubs in Group A and three in Group B. The original plan was that the winners of Group A would progress to the junior final, while the runners-up would face the Group B table-toppers in a semi-final. However, in a moment of panic, the County Board changed the rules mid-stride. Westerns ran away with Group B but Group A was an infinitely more competitive affair altogether. After the programme of fixtures had been completed, three teams - Glen Emmets, Dowdallshill and John Mitchells - shared top spot with four points apiece, all having beaten Annaghminnon and drawn with each other! A three-way tie meant that a play-off should now have been played to determine who topped the group (and progressed to the final), with the losers playing the other team for second spot (and a semi-final berth). Instead, the County Board decided to play TWO semi-finals, allowing all three Group A sides through to the last four. An open draw paired Dowdallshill with John Mitchells while Glen Emmets arguably got the short end of the stick when drawn against Westerns, who were certainly the freshest of the four semi-finalists. Westerns won the semi-final convincingly and the Emmets were left shaking their heads in dismay when Dowdallshill went on to win the final. They knew that but for a below-par semi-final display they could have collected the Christy Bellew Cup themselves. The Division Three league quickly developed into a three-way battle between the same three sides. It went right down to the wire before the 'Hill finally put paid to Tullyallen's hopes of outright victory, in the process edging closer to a famous double. But there was still plenty to play for - the fact that the Dundalk side had already won the JFC meant the runners-up in the league would be promoted alongside them. Glen Emmets' final league game was against Westerns, who were two points higher on the table. It was a fixture of championship proportions. Victory for Tullyallen would set up another meeting of the teams (a second-place play-off) with a place in intermediate football for the 2004 season up for grabs. The JFC semi-final result added spice to an already intriguing contest. Westerns prevailed and booked the second promotion spot. Glen Emmets finished a respectable third, a great effort but disappointing all the same. While missing out on promotion was an obvious blow, full back and club stalwart Frankie Carolan believes it was nonetheless an encouraging year for the Tullyallen men: "We were there or thereabouts in all three competitions and were consistent right through the season. "We know ourselves we should have been straight through to the championship final as winners of Group A. We should have beaten Dowdallshill ... that result cost us a place in the final. When the competition was changed around and two semi-finals were played, we probably did get the worst deal, because we were drawn against Westerns when neither Dowdallshill nor John Mitchells would have fancied playing us again. "It was a disappointing end to our championship and we were doubly disappointed to then lose a crucial league game to Dowdallshill, which effectively ruled us out of that as well." Glen Emmets made their 2003 junior championship bow at Tallanstown against John Mitchells on July 4th and a thrilling contest finished with honours even, 2-15 to 1-18. A fortnight later the Tullyallen men travelled to Castlebellingham to take on 2002 finalists Dowdallshill but again the game finished in a draw, 1-9 apiece. Emmets then hammered Annaghminnon Rovers in their final group outing, 6-10 to 0-5, but were on the receiving end of a bit of a thumping themselves in their subsequent semi-final against Westerns. The 'semi' was held at The Grove on Sunday August 24th and the Reaghstown men prevailed by ten points, 2-18 to 3-5. Only a point separated the sides as the game entered its final quarter, but westerns pulled away with a late surge of 1-6 in answered scores. It was an unfitting end to a campaign that had promised much. Up until the Westerns game, Glen Emmets had looked like potential JFC winners. "We're happy with the way we played in the group stage, but we were very disappointed to lose to the Westerns by ten points. On the day, we performed very poorly. "We felt we should have been in the final already at that stage because we were unlucky not to beat Dowdallshill, who got an equaliser in injury time. If we'd won that game, we'd have been in the final. The referee played something like nine minutes of overtime and, even though both teams got scores during that period, we were leading at the end of normal time..." Bearing in mind that the group games had clearly demonstrated there to be little or nothing between the Emmets, Dowdallshill and John Mitchells, was Westerns the toughest semi-final draw the Tullyallen side could have got? "Possibly. We were disappointed with the draw because we'd have fancied ourselves against either Dowdallshill or the Mitchells... "Still and all, we should've done better on the day. I don't think Westerns are ten points a better team than us, but we didn't perform on the day." With three strong teams in the junior grade and only two promotion places up for grabs, something was always going to have to give. The team that lost out was always going to be extremely unfortunate, but Tullyallen are putting a brave face on it: "The way we played in general over the course of the season was a definite improvement on the previous couple of years. Of course we were disappointed not to get promoted. We lost a couple of league games that we shouldn't have, against the Tones and the Mitchells, and that made all the difference when it came down to the last few matches. "But there has been an improvement. We were hoping to escape from junior ranks because we feel we're good enough to get out of there and that we can put it up to better opposition. I don't think we'd be outclassed in intermediate football." Frankie says that 2003 was "a huge year" for the club. Their pitch has achieved legendary status over the years - for all the wrong reasons! - but the situation is currently being rectified and massive progress was made on this front in '03, with Phase I of the redevelopment complete. "We've come in for heavy criticism in the past because of the big slope on the pitch, but that's gone now. We've levelled it out and put a new surface in and we're hoping to be able to play on it at some stage next year. There's a training pitch as well and the facilities will be of great benefit to the whole county." Glen Emmets' U11s and U13s deserve a special mention for winning their respective Drogheda leagues, while Tullyallen had four or five regulars on the amalgamation (with Mattock and Hunterstown) that captured the deferred 2002 U21 county championship during the 2003 calendar year. They also reached the 2003 final, which had yet to be played at the time of going to press. "Things are going very well for us," the reliable Emmets full back enthuses. "There was a lot of very successful fundraising carried out during the year - including a great Golf Classic in May - and we raised a lot of funds towards the new pitch. "The fundraising committee definitely deserves a special mention, as well as our many sponsors. Mickey Browne of SAMIC Security is our main sponsor and we're very grateful to him. Other sponsors we'd like to thank include Jack Marry, The Morning Star, Dlok Electric, Niall Lynch, McCarron Engineering and Cherryfield Homes. "We're also grateful to anyone else who supported our fundraising endeavours and we're delighted that our new facilities are taking shape. Once they're in place, it should encourage more people to get involved in the club..." Members of the Carolan family are central to the fortunes of Glen Emmets GFC. Frankie has been a regular on the first team for 13 years and has to date won a JFC (in 1997) as well as a couple of Kevin Mullen Shields. On the evidence of how the team performed in 2003, there should be further silverware in the clubhouse soon. Tweet

Most Read Stories