St Nicholas - who celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2003 - enjoyed a decent year. The Drogheda club recorded a rare victory in the group stages of the intermediate championship, and contributed two men to Louth's celebrated minor team. One of these, wing back Andrew Tinley, reflects on an eventful season at club and county level. Following their Division Three heroics in 2002, St Nicholas proudly re-took their place in intermediate football in '03. At the time of writing, the leagues had yet to be finished, but St Nicholas still had everything to play for and looked a good bet to preserve their intermediate status. Furthermore, the Nicks even managed to win a championship game in the process, defeating the previous year's JFC winners Na Piarsaigh by 2-8 to 1-10 in a thrilling 2003 IFC Group C encounter at Dunleer on Saturday July 12th. Though they lost their other two group outings - against Dundalk Gaels (who had just come down from senior and went on to win the IFC) and St Kevins - it was nonetheless a very satisfactory year for the good ship St Nicholas and all who sail on her. Looking back on their display in the championship, county minor Andrew Tinley sounds both upbeat and enthusiastic: "We feel it was a pretty good year for the club. We were disappointed not to do a little better in the championship, but the league was always going to be our priority - as it was in 2002 - and we're happy enough with how we performed, especially in our home games. Division 2B was tight all year and we were always within striking distance of the top half of the table, so we were pleased about that. Our main target was to avoid slipping back down to junior football. We have a fairly young side and it would be great if we could get a few more points on the board to ensure that we'll be playing intermediate football again in 2004." St Nicholas' first championship outing of the year was against Dundalk Gaels at Ardee on June 15th. As two clear grades had separated these sides the previous season (the Gaels were senior in 2002; the Nicks were junior), it was a baptism of fire for the young Drogheda club. In the end, the Dundalk outfit's greater experience of the big occasion was decisive as the Gaels romped to a double scores victory, 0-12 to 0-6. The Nicks could have no complaints - they were caught cold in the first half and trailed by 0-9 to 0-1 at the interval. Still, they acquitted themselves much better in the second period and were served well by good performances from dual star Aidan Carter, county minors Tinley and Darren Stephenson, Simon Neary, Paddy O'Boyle and Sean Cluskey. Six days later, St Kevins provided the opposition in Drogheda. This was a key game as the winners would have an excellent chance of progressing to the knock-out stages. As it transpired, neither side hit top form but the Kevins held out for a three-point win, 0-9 to 0-6. The Nicks dominated much of the first half but their shooting was poor and the only scores they managed before the interval were three Andrew Tinley frees. The Philipstown side led by a point at the break but had the better of an ill-tempered second half to effectively book a 2003 IFC quarter-final berth. Pride was at stake when St Nicholas clashed with Na Piarsaigh in a bottom-of-group encounter at Dunleer on July 12th. This was a meeting of two sides who had played junior football twelve months earlier - the 2002 Division Three winners and the 2002 JFC winners. An epic battle ended in the narrowest of wins for the Nicks, 2-8 to 1-10. Simon Neary and Keith Arnold scored the all-important goals for the winners. Victory came as an important psychological boost for the Red & Whites, who have proven that they are capable of actually winning championship matches in the secondary grade. "It was a nothing match in the greater scheme of things, but it was still a good result," Andrew admits. "We felt we could have gone through with a better performance against the Kevins but it was nice to record our first intermediate championship win in many years. We paid the price for slow starts in both the Gaels and Kevins games, but we're a young team and hopefully we'll learn from the experience." Realistically, St Nicholas were never going to win the intermediate championship. Thus, it made sense to focus most of their attention on the league. After all, final league placing would determine their status for 2004 and retaining their hard-fought intermediate standing was a stated priority. That's not to say they weren't prepared to give the championship a right rattle, however. As Andrew explains, the Nicks fancied their chances of reaching the knock-out stages: "Going into the first game against Dundalk Gaels, we felt we were in with a good chance because we had just beaten them in the Grogan Cup. Unfortunately, they were just cuter and more experienced on the day. We performed better in the second half, but didn't really give ourselves much of a chance with our first-half performance. Trailing by eight points at half time left us with a mountain to climb. "We also knew we could beat the Kevins because we had ran them close in the league only a fortnight before the championship game. But they were physically too strong for us. They were bigger and stronger. Some of our younger players weren't strong enough for championship football and the Kevins took full advantage of those weaknesses. "It was encouraging to bounce back with the win over Na Piarsaigh and at least we proved to ourselves that we're capable of winning intermediate championship matches." Is intermediate the level the Nicks feel they should be playing at for the foreseeable future? "Yes, we think we're good enough and we really don't want to be sliding back down to junior. We had two Louth minors this year and have others who have featured for the county at various underage levels over the years, so the talent is here. "Our target has to be a place in Division 2A, which would give us a bit of breathing space. But we're going to have to bring more consistency into our play. We know that playing for half a match is never going to be good enough at any level. You might get away with that at junior level, but intermediate football is a whole different ball game - the opposition is good enough to punish inconsistency." Andrew and many of the current St Nicholas crop have enjoyed some notable underage successes in recent years. In 2001, they won the Division One U16 league and reached the championship final against Cooley. At minor level in '03, that same team fell at the first hurdle: "We lost to Oliver Plunketts by three points with 14 men. We thought we were in with a good chance but it just didn't happen." A total of six of the club's minors played with the first team, four of them holding down regular starting places over the duration of the 2003 term. As the second youngest football club in the Wee County, St Nicholas have had plenty of players poached over the years but hopes are high that this particular trend is a thing of the past: "The key now is to hold onto our best players," Andrew muses. "We haven't really lost anyone over the past two years, so we're winning that battle at the moment." Hugh Downey and Jim McQuillan handled first team affairs once again in 2003. Even though Andrew missed a lot of training due to his commitments with the Louth minors, he reports that "there were some great turn-outs over the season. We had up to 20 or 22 turning up for pre-season training and that had increased to the full squad by the middle of July. There was a real buzz about the place as realisations grew that we could actually stay up intermediate." What's a realistic long-term objective for the club? Senior football one day, perhaps? "Obviously we'd all like to play senior but that's probably beyond us at the moment. We have the spine of a good strong side that can compete at intermediate level, but we're still weak in a few positions. We have to keep building, filling in the gaps gradually, and I'm sure we can keep getting stronger..." Undoubtedly the high point of Andrew Tinley's year was his involvement with the Louth minors. As reported in greater detail elsewhere in this edition, Paddy Oliver's side produced some wonderful football over the course of an epic Leinster championship voyage and came agonisingly close to reaching the provincial final only to lose to Dublin in a semi-final replay. The St Nicholas clubman, who featured prominently in all seven of the Wee County's outings, notes: "It was a great experience, especially considering that we still had nine of the previous year's team. "We knew it'd be tough against Longford in the opening round. They were the defending Leinster champions and not many people gave us a chance against them. But we had belief in ourselves and we got a great result in Drogheda. We were always expected to beat Carlow and Kilkenny but we had to guard against complacency in those games. We got the four points, so we knew we'd be through to the quarter-finals if we beat Wicklow in our last preliminary-round game. "Wicklow gave us a real fright in Aughrim. They took the lead with a goal in the second half - the first goal that had been scored against us all year! - but we managed to regain our composure and won comfortably enough in the end. "We met Offaly in the quarter-final and they're always a tough nut to crack. This was also meant to be one of Offaly's better minor teams, so we were very happy with that win. It was a good performance." And so to the provincial semi-final against Dublin. Nobody gave Louth a chance but the Wee County lads were superb in Navan and the Dubs needed two late, late points to force a replay. "In our own hearts, we knew we could do it," Andrew reveals, a little ruefully. "We gave them a game in Drogheda on St Patrick's Day when we were missing a lot of our top players, so we knew we'd be close. "The way they snatched the draw the first day was sickening and that's where the game was lost. They started the second game the way they finished the first one while we were missing Robert Kearney for the replay, which was a massive blow. "Our aim from the start of the year was Croke Park and it was disappointing that we didn't get to play on the big stage. We were so close we could almost touch it. It was still a tremendous experience being involved with that team, however, and I'm sure we'll all learn from it." Tweet

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