St Josephs played six times in the 2001 Louth SFC yet didn't even reach the semi-final stage. Such are the vagaries of the new championship system in the Wee County. It must be pointed out that the Joes played arguably the best football of the entire '01 senior championship and the Dromiskin/Darver selection were extremely unfortunate not to go closer. Having manfully negotiated their way through a perilous Group A (also containing Lannleire, Dreadnots and Cooley) courtesy of a play-off victory over the doughty Clogherhead men, the Joes saw their dreams incinerated in agonising fashion by defending champions Newtown Blues in an epic quarter-final. That tussle went to a replay before it was finally decided and, in all honesty, there was never more than a solitary break of the ball between the two teams. With the rub of the green, the Joes would have advanced to the last four and, from there, who knows?. After all, the Blues went on to retain the SFC and there's no reason in the world why the Joes couldn't have finished the job in similar fashion. Will any Joes supporter ever forget Ollie McDonnell's rasping shot which came back off the crossbar in the dying minutes of the drawn encounter? Or his exceptional display in the replay? The manner in which St Josephs opened their championship account was quite amazing. In their first match, at The Grove on the second Sunday in June, they defeated Lannleire on a scoreline of 3-6 to 0-7. Nothing spectacular about that - until one considers that they entire Joes tally was contributed by just two players, county attackers David Reilly and Ollie McDonnell who scored 2-2 and 1-4 respectively. And, wait for it: all from open play! If there was a deadly duo wreaking havoc at any time in the Wee County during the season gone by then surely this was it. The ruthless exhibition in entertaining forward play began immediately from the throw-in when Reilly blasted the ball to the net after only 27 seconds. A pre-match re-shuffle saw the Joes begin with Declan O'Sullivan lining out as a third midfielder alongside Stephen Melia and John Fox and they put a stranglehold on the game. The Joes remained a goal clear, 1-2 to 0-2, after 20 minutes, courtesy of two superb McDonnell points from distance. On 25 minutes, the ever-alert McDonnell was on hand to capitalise on some slackness in the Lannleire reargaurd and he fired low to the corner. With a six-point lead, St Josephs were virtually across the finishing line already. They led 2-2 to 0-4 at the interval, a mini-rally from Lannleire giving them perhaps a glimmer of hope. Joes' scoring duo added three points without reply before Reilly made it 2-6 to 0-5 with ten minutes left. Lannleire pulled back a couple of scores but the Joes finished the game in an identical fashion to how they had started it: McDonnell picked out his partner in crime and Reilly made no mistake in giving his team an eight-point winning margin and enough breathing space to keep one thousand elephants alive for a millennium. A good start. But the Joes didn't get it all their own way when they came face to face with Cooley Kickhams at Dowdallshill just over a fortnight later. The peninsula men were playing at a venue that has virtually become a championship sanctuary for them in recent years and had the added incentive of needing a win to stay alive following their shock opening round defeat at the hands of Dreadnots. The Joes gave it their best shot but lost by three points, 3-11 to 3-8. While 3-8 would normally be enough to win any game, it must be reflected that 2-1 of that was scored in a frenzied closing ten minutes as they desperately chased a match that had already slipped beyond their grasp. In spite of starting well and finishing strongly, the Joes went strangely AWOL for the 40 or so minutes in between and, despite only trailing by two points at half time and creating an array of goalscoring opportunities over the course of the hour, were to be disappointed with the end result of their day's work. They knew they'd have to up their game against high-flying Dreadnots to remain in contention. Dreadnots boasted a 100% record and already had one foot across the threshold and into the knock-out stages. All they required from their meeting with the Joes was a draw, while the mid-Louth men needed to win (as Cooley trounced Lannleire in the corresponding game). They succeeded in eking out the requisite victory to force a three-way play-off with Cooley and Dreadnots. The game took place at the County Grounds in Drogheda on Thursday June 28th and the Joes prevailed by 1-11 to 1-8. There were palpitations of sorts when Dreadnots drew within a point with a 55th minute goal but late points from Paddy O'Connor and Gary Shevlin steadied the St Josephs ship. Joes had registered the first three scores of the evening yet still found themselves trailing 0-4 to 0-3 after 14 minutes. But within seconds of falling behind Declan O'Sullivan fired low to the corner of the net to give his team a two-point cushion. A trademark Ollie McDonnell point had them 1-4 to 0-5 to the good at the short whistle. After the interval, Dreadnots began to tackle heavily but Mark Gorham made good use of the resultant frees to move his team a goal clear and two more McDonnell scores had them in the driving seat, 1-9 to 0-7, ten minutes from time. The play-off place had been secured. Appropriately, Dreadnots again provided the opposition. The Joes had the safety net of knowing that if they failed to win they'd get a second chance against Cooley but they opted not to take the scenic route this time. A brilliant second-half fightback was enough to book the Dromiskin/Darver men's safe passage to the last eight. Having been outplayed in the first half, they trailed 0-7 to 0-3 at the break. It was a different St Josephs that emerged for the second half. Within five minutes of the restart they had drawn level with four unanswered points from substitute Mark Dorian, David Reilly (2) and Ollie McDonnell. Eight minutes in, McDonnell gave his side the lead for the first time after picking up possession from Mark Gorham and the full forward immediately extended the lead to two points, 0-9 to 0-7. A complete transformation! Joes went on to outscore their opponents by ten points to two in the second half thanks to further fine efforts from Stephen Quigley, McDonnell, Paddy O'Connor and Man of the Match Reilly. Now it was down to the business end of the competition. The quarter-finals. The knock-outs. The cliche claims that there are no easy games in championship football. Well, this may or may not be true but they certainly don't come much more difficult than the quarter-final the Joes were handed: a meeting with defending champions Newtown Blues. They came close to working the oracle and, in many respects, were deeply unlucky not to do so. St Josephs demonstrated that they were hitting form at just the right time when they thumped Clan Na Gael 3-14 to 0-14 in a league fixture the week before their August 5th clash with the Blues. It appeared that their season was building inexorably towards a stunning climax and they approached the quarter-final brimming with conviction and belief anew. They almost pulled it off too. With time almost up, they held a two-point lead, only to be foiled by two last-gasp Thomas Carr frees for the defending and would be champions. It had looked much less encouraging in the early stages when a lethargic looking Joes were caught on the hop by Blues' quickfire start, falling five points behind within seven minutes. Panic buttons were within reach but the Joes kept their cool and themselves hit five points in succession. Mark Gorham landed two frees before Paddy O'Connor, Ciaran O'Donoghue and David Reilly all got in on the act. Blues edged back in front but Brendan O'Donoghue equalised when he might well have gone for goal. Four Blues points on the trot were followed by another Joes point that could easily have been a three-pointer, O'Connor being the close-range culprit this time. At half time, the Joes trailed by 0-10 to 0-7 but Ollie McDonnell was getting the better of county colleague Brien Phillips and he reduced the deficit within minutes of the resumption. In the run-up to the three-quarters stage, they hit four unanswered points (Stephen Melia, McDonnell, Gorham and Reilly doing the necessary) to take the lead for the first time, 0-12 to 0-11. Blues equalised and the Joes must have sensed that it wasn't going to be their day when McDonnell's unstoppable drive rebounded viciously off the black spot on the crossbar. They kept plugging away and super scores from midfielder John Fox and Alan O'Connor had them two clear with only seven minutes left. Blues drew level once more and McDonnell was again out of luck when his attempted point came back off the upright. Any chance they had of snatching a dramatic winner was thwarted when the referee brought a premature end to proceedings, with the full 30 minutes not even played yet, never mind any added time! The replay the following Sunday went to extra time before the Joes' dream of a second SFC was finally banished. Ollie McDonnell gave an absolute exhibition of class football in Dunleer with an individual performance to match any other seen in the Wee County - ever. The Joes full forward scored 2-6, all but two of those scores coming from play. The Blues had seemed to be coasting before McDonnell struck with two magnificent goals in the first five minutes of the second half to turn the tie on its head. Suddenly the Dromiskin/Darver men led by 3-2 to 0-7. They also carried the momentum now and looked the most likely winners as time dwindled captivatingly towards the 'final' whistle. But the Blues got back on top and were three points clear with only minutes to play. Up stepped McDonnell once more to strike three unanswered points and force extra time. St Josephs made the best start in this period but simply ran out of steam and the odyssey ended. Newtown Blues 2-21, St Josephs 3-13 (after extra time) Tweet

Most Read Stories