About three or four years ago, the smart money in the Wee County was on Lannleire winning a senior county championship sooner rather than later. The Dunleer club had made the tricky ascension from junior to senior status in double-quick time and, with a fountain of prodigious youth at their disposal, played a brand of football that even had opposition supporters licking their lips in admiration. They were the new kids on the block. They were purposeful, ambitious and multi-talented. Lannleire were the Real McCoy. In the likes of Nicky Malone and Martin Farrelly they had born leaders on the field. They made the late 'nineties their own, infusing new life into Louth football with breath-taking performances. This was football as it should be played. But a Joe Ward Cup was not forthcoming. A county final was reached in 1998, but on a wet and windy day at Castlebellingham, Lannleire misfired. They blew it. It was widely believed they'd eventually set the record straight. However, for a combination of reasons, they've never quite reached those same heights. In 2001, Lannleire endured arguably their most instantly forgettable season in ten years. They struggled all year in the league and their championship campaign was nothing short of a nightmare. The new look senior championship - contested on a league basis for the first time ever - saw the Dunleer outfit pitted in Section A alongside Dreadnots, St Joseph's and Cooley Kickhams for the group stages. After a series of round-robin games, the top two teams would progress to the competition quarter-finals. Lannleire had every reason to be feeling confident. Three rounds of games later, three of the four clubs were locked on four points apiece - Lannleire weren't one of them. While the Joes, Cooley and senior new boys Dreadnots prepared themselves for a three-way play-off, Lannleire were licking their wounds after finishing pointless at the foot of the table. At the start of the year, it would have been almost inconceivable that the Dunleer men would lose all three of their championship matches, yet that's precisely what transpired. Saturday June 2nd at The Grove: St Joseph's 3-6, Lannleire 0-7. Sunday June 17th at The Gaelic Grounds: Dreadnots 0-14, Lannleire 2-7. Thursday June 28th at Dowdallshill: Cooley Kickhams 5-7, Lannleire 0-11. Of course, there were mitigating circumstances. An ill-timed injury crisis, a rash of unavailability and general bad luck contributed enormously to Lannleire's fall from grace. At no point in the year were they even close to full strength - and it showed. Louth's championship hopes were severely curtailed by injuries to the inspirational Farrelly and Malone. Well, if the county team is so dependant on the pair, just imagine the crippling blow their absence can be to a small club like Lannleire. Quite simply, they were stretched and, even though they competed well for long periods against both the men from Dromiskin and the Clogherhead lads, they hadn't the strength in depth to field a team capable of winning at this level. Frankly, they were decimated for an entire season. Lannleire had three players involved in the county set-up in 2000 - Martin Farrelly, Nicky Malone and John McGrane. Last year they had to manage completely without the services of the latter, who was unavailable due to work commitments, while Farrelly and Malone appeared only sporadically due to a recurring ankle injury and a broken hand respectively. Of the club's other key players, Paddy O'Connor had a broken arm, Wayne Carroll a broken leg and Derek Farrelly suffered cruciate ligament damage. Things were so bad that at times there were rumours doing the rounds that a new wing was being opened in Our Lady of Lourdes just to cater for Dunleer footballers! The situation became so serious that the club was unable to field a junior team, as they didn't have enough players left who hadn't already played senior. There was nothing much that manager Patrick Callan or his selectors George Reynolds and Aidan King could have done. St Joseph's The game against the Joes was a poor one by any standards. Lannleire were on the back foot from the off, fighting an uphill battle from the moment David Reilly bulged their net after only 27 seconds ... certainly not an ideal start to any championship campaign. Reilly and his county colleague Ollie McDonnell registered the Joes' entire tally of 3-6, all from open play, while only three players contributed to Lannleire's total of seven points. A number of players were missing from both sides due to a combination of holidays and injuries but the absence of Martin Farrelly was without doubt the most significant. A smallish crowd contributed to gate returns of £1,100 and, despite suitable weather conditions, were treated to something of a damp squib. Nicky Malone was seemingly assigned to carry out a man-marking job on McDonnell. If this was the case, then this was one of those rare occasions on which the Louth captain finished a clear second best. Lannleire still trailed by a goal after 20 minutes, 1-2 to 0-2. Then, on 25 minutes, goalkeeper Donal Martin was easily beaten by McDonnell from close range and the game was virtually over as a contest. Despite upping the tempo in the half's closing five minutes and registering points through Carlos Lambe and Declan Martin, the Dunleer men trailed by double scores at the short whistle, 2-2 to 0-4. Joes had edged further ahead by the end of the third quarter, 2-5 to 0-4 and then Lambe swapped points with Reilly. Further scores from Lambe and full forward John Farrelly reduced the leeway to five points with four minutes left but Lannleire never looked like getting the goal they so desperately needed. Instead, it was Reilly who added his second goal at the other end with the game deep in injury time. An eight-point defeat was a lot less than Lannleire had been hoping for. Dreadnots The defeat to Dreadnots - who had been junior two years earlier - was infinitely more disappointing. This time, Lannleire were undone by a free five minutes into injury time. This was a prime example of a team snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Lannleire seemed to have established a platform for guaranteed success with two first-half goals, the second of which from John Farrelly gave them a seven-point cushion. They even led by two points as the game went into injury time, but couldn't hold out. It was that sort of season. Martin Farrelly returned to the fray but this time Nicky Malone didn't play. Playing good attractive football, Lannleire compiled a 2-4 to 0-7 interval lead. Declan Martin's eighth minute goal added to early points from midfielder Darren Malone and Carlos Lambe gave them a 1-2 to 0-1 lead. Martin and Lambe added further points and Farrelly's goal gave the losers a seemingly insurmountable 2-3 to 0-2 advantage. But in the closing eight minutes of the half Lannleire managed only one point against five from Dreadnots. In the second half, Lannleire always looked likely to hold out but their resistance eventually crumbled much to the dismay of their trusty supporters and the obvious joy of the Dreadnots camp. Cooley The final game against Cooley could best be described as a nightmare. Lannleire were ran ragged for most of the match and the concession of five goals tells its own story about how the backside finally fell out of their championship challenge. They dominated the opening exchanges and pointed twice through John O'Connor and Declan Martin. But the surrender of two goals in 60 seconds inside the opening ten minutes put paid to Lannleire's frustrating championship year. A third goal followed in the 14th minute and that, as they say, was that. Tweet

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