Newtown Blues seemed on course to regain the Joe Ward Cup - until they came up against St Brides at the quarter-final stage of the 2003 SFC. Ace attacker Thomas Carr reflects on a season that promised much but ended abruptly. Newtown Blues' world caved in around them at Pairc Mhuire, Ardee on Friday August 8th 2003 when they were left reeling in the wake of a surprise 1-5 to 0-7 defeat at the hands of St Brides in a low-key SFC quarter-final. Defeat represented a surreal end to the Blues' championship aspirations - the Drogheda men were widely tipped to go all the way and, man for man, knew they had enough fire-power to capture the title they won back-to-back in 2000 and 2001. Thomas Carr, who was the team's top scorer all year, is still at a loss to explain where it all went wrong. The one thing he does know for sure, however, is that it was a thoroughly miserable end to the club's promising campaign. Would it be fair to say the Blues are disappointed? "Absolutely. It was a disastrous way to go out of the championship. There's no other way of putting it. We had been going so well in the league and our championship form up until then was also good. We knew we were good enough to beat the Brides and go all the way, but we didn't perform on the day and paid the price." Elimination from the championship was indeed a big price to pay for one bad day at the office. But the competition was down to its knock-out phase and there was no way back. The Blues knew in their heart of hearts that they shouldn't have exited the premier competition so tamely. That same weekend in August both St Pats and Cooley marched through to the last four with victories over Stabannon and Kilkerley respectively. Within seven days of being knocked out of the SFC, Newtown Blues faced both those sides in the league, drawing with the high-flying Lordship representatives and hammering Cooley out of sight. Those results gave a more accurate indication of their true level. Even now, the quarter-final defeat hasn't quite sunk in. "It's still hard to believe," Thomas admits. "We were playing well before and after that game but for some reason failed to perform. The Brides are a good team and they had been in the final the previous year, so we knew we were in for a tough game, but we're a lot better than we showed that night. When we went out the following week and got those two results against Cooley and the Pats, I think we all knew we had left it behind us. We're really deflated over it because we genuinely felt that, with the players we have, we could've gone all the way." The quarter-final was a poor game and the scoreline speaks for itself. In the end, an Aaron Hoey point from a 45 four minutes from time proved the difference between the teams. And the Blues played so badly on the night that they could have no complaints at being sent packing. "I don't think we had a single player on the field that performed well in that game," Thomas concedes. "Each team only got two points in the second half and that's a poor return by any standards. In fairness, if you only manage two points in half an hour, you don't deserve to win. The Brides got their tactics right and they closed us down. Defensively they were very strong and they didn't allow us any space." The Blues had emerged from Group B unbeaten, with five points from three games. In reaching the knock-out stage, they eliminated defending champions Mattock Rangers. Their intent was clear... After opening their account with a 1-15 to 2-7 defeat of Hunterstown Rovers at Dunleer on June 13th, the Blues struck late to grab a draw with the Pats at Ardee on June 29th. In that game an injury-time point from Thomas Carr earned a deserved share of the spoils. The Blues went into their final group outing against Collon knowing that a draw would put them through to the last eight. A strong second-half performance was good enough to send them into the quarter-finals on the back of a comprehensive victory, 2-9 to 0-5, at Castlebellingham on July 13th. After missing the 2002 season (spending the summer in the States), Thomas Carr has succeeded the legendary Colin Kelly as Newtown Blues' free-taker and scorer-in-chief, a role he has assumed with a notable minimum of fuss. He registered 1-3 in that victory over Mattock and accounted for a personal haul of eight points in the Hunterstown victory, a game in which the winners didn't exactly set the world on fire: "We struggled a bit in the first game against Hunterstown," says the half forward. "It wasn't really until the last ten minutes that we managed to pull away. We then had a very good game against the Pats, where both teams played well and the draw was a fair result. "It was all or nothing against Mattock and we played very well in the second half. We thought we'd go on from there but then came our downfall against the Brides. We'd beaten them in 2000 and 2001 and, even though they had improved a lot, we felt we could take them again." Two-thousand-and-three was Donal Brady's first year in charge, with Mickey McQuillan's four-year term at the helm having expired the previous autumn (after the Blues had also lost out at the quarter-final stage, that time to Clan Na Gael). Thomas notes: "Our failure in '03 definitely didn't have anything to do with the management, it came down to the players. With the group of players we have here, we should be challenging for senior honours. It's as simple as that. "We got together as usual around the middle of February and trained indoors initially and then went out around March/April. [Blues 'keeper and Louth U21 coach] Colm Nally took most of the training for the last six weeks and we did a lot of sprints and short exercises. All in all, we were in very good shape. "In general, we still have most of the players from 2000 and 2001 but you really miss a player like Colin Kelly. Colin was crucial to the team because of his experience and scoring power and we don't really have a target man in there any more. Apart from Colin though, we still have the backbone of those two championship-winning teams, with a lot of young fellas coming through as well. "A few of us were missing in '02 but we all got together again this year and decided to give it a good crack. "We thought we'd win it, to be honest. We knew we had the players. It wasn't that we were cocky - we had done it before and we knew we were as good as any of the other teams in the county. But on the day we failed to perform and we're still shellshocked!" Even though it was clear that the Brides would be no pushover, the Blues felt that they had the beating of them. They had defeated the Knockbridge men on many occasions previously and looked the stronger team on paper. Says Thomas: "When we looked around the field we saw that we were very strong from corner back to corner forward, so, yes, we thought we would win. But they did their homework on us and got their tactics spot on..." Thomas Carr hails from a family steeped in Blues tradition. Hid dad Tom has been involved with the club all his life, while his uncles also played a lot of football for the famous Drogheda club, as did brother Paul. Though still only 25, Thomas himself has been a first-teamer for eight years. He has won everything with the club through from U14 and U16 level, played in three county minor finals and has garnered two county U21 titles and two SFCs. It's an impressive haul but the gifted attacker says he's disappointed that silverware has been scarce these past two seasons. He captained his county at minor level, represented the Louth U21s and was a member of the senior panel for two seasons under Paddy Clarke. He gave some wonderful displays in 2003 but admits "it doesn't really count for a whole lot" in the wake of the quarter-final defeat. Can the Blues bounce back and win the SFC in 2004? "The bar has been raised and the standard of football in the county is so high that it's ridiculous to be talking about winning the championship. Everyone has the same level of fitness and most clubs are using professional coaches, so what you basically need is 25 lads who are prepared to put the effort in over the whole year. "You can't really predict in advance what's going to happen. It's impossible to say what the attitude of the players is going to be like. We won't know until it happens. We definitely have the talent and there's a good minor team coming through as well, which should give us a few new faces. "But we can't be going around saying we're going to win the senior championship next year. Two-thousand-and-three was a huge disappointment. We'll have to wait and see what the commitments like next time around ..." Tweet

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