St. Patrick's hopes of a three in-a-row of Louth senior football championship successes this year were scuppered by a combination of injuries, emigration and a loss of appetite. While disappointed with the club's showing, long-serving forward John Keenan expects the Lordship outfit to bounce back in 2006. After scaling unprecedented heights in 2003 and 2004, St. Patrick's were brought crashing down to earth with a bang this year. Hopes were high of a historic three in-a-row of senior football championship successes, but defeats to peninsula rivals Cooley Kickhams and St. Mary's saw them relinquish the Joe Ward Cup in the group stages. The confidence, hunger and swagger of the previous two campaigns were conspicuous by their absence as the Pat's exited the championship with a whimper. "It was a disappointing year, a big comedown from 2003 and 2004," admits long-serving St. Pat's corner forward John Keenan. "We made a decent start to the league, but we couldn't build on that and it was a big disappointment not to qualify from our group. While we had a terrible time with injuries and also had a change of management in the early part of the year, I think a big factor in our demise was our loss of hunger. "The huge effort we had put into the previous two years took an awful lot out of us and there was a certain amount of burnout there this year. It's hard to keep putting in that sort of effort. It takes its toll on you after a few years," he adds. St. Patrick's were without up to 10 key players during the year, including Darren Kirwan, Jim Holland, Paudie Mallon, Padraig Devane, Colin Goss and Eamonn Carroll. "No club could afford to be without that amount of players," Keenan says. "Paudie Mallon went to New Zealand, while the rest of the lads had various injuries. Colin Goss ruptured his cruciate ligament and he had probably the most serious injury of any player." Drawn in Group C of the senior championship, St. Pat's were facing an uphill battle after losing their first game to Cooley Kickhams at Knockbridge. The Lordship side had beaten their arch rivals in the 2004 final and had also ended their championship interests in 2003, so an emphatic 3-10 to 1-6 victory represented sweet revenge for Cooley. St. Pat's put that setback behind them when beating St. Bride's by 2-9 to 1-6 in their second outing at Dromiskin. Aaron Hoey got the Bride's off to a good start with a point in the first minute. Damian Connor was on target with two frees and Hoey levelled with another free before Karl White put the Pat's ahead again. At half-time, the green and whites held a 0-5 to 0-3 lead. Two goals in a three-minute spell at the start of the second half by Damian Connor and Karl White put St. Pat's eight points clear before Aaron Hoey gave the Bride's hope with a goal three minutes later. Ray Kelly reduced the deficit further, but St. Pat's finished strongly with points from Connor, White and substitute Sean O'Connor sealing a comfortable win. St. Pat's needed to beat St. Mary's in their final group match to remain on course to retain their title, but such never looked like materializing as they slumped to a crushing 0-7 to 2-14 defeat. St. Mary's stormed into a 1-5 to no score lead after 20 minutes and the issue was never in doubt after that. Having turned 34 this year, Keenan isn't sure if he will be back to assist St. Pat's in 2006. He claims that the club is going through a transitional phase at present, but is nevertheless confident that they will once again be a force to be reckoned with next year. "I've no doubt that we'll bounce back next year. While we're rebuilding at the moment, it's still a very strong squad with a nice blend of youth and experience. The club won a minor championship in 2002 and we got six or seven very good footballers off that team. The likes of Paddy Keenan, who is a regular for Louth and has played for Leinster in the Railway Cup, Sean Connor and Owen Zamboglou are outstanding prospects and are likely to be around for a long time to come." John experienced many disappointments with St. Pat's before they achieved a major breakthrough in 2003 when they defeated St. Mary's after a replay to capture the Joe Ward Cup for the first time. Remarkably, the success coincided with the club's 50th anniversary celebrations. And as if to prove they weren't a flash in the pan, St. Pat's got the better of Cooley Kickhams in a low-scoring final to retain Louth football's big prize last year. "We had been building towards our first championship win in 2003 for a number of years," he explains. "In 1999, we won the Cardinal O'Donnell Cup for the first time and we followed that up with an ACC Cup success. We also won junior and under 21 championships so the next logical step was to win the senior championship and it was an incredible feeling when we finally achieved that." Keenan insists that St. Pat's have a bright future ahead of them. "After what happened this year, a lot of people are probably thinking that we are going to slip back to the level we were at a few years ago. But we've too many good players for that to happen. St. Pat's are here to stay and we have no intention of going away. Having tasted success, we want more. "This is also an exciting time for the club off the field with the development of our new gym and training facilities. We have no intention of resting on our laurels." When he's not giving his all for St. Patrick's, John is a director in KTF, a company he set up along with his brothers Niall, Thomas and Jimmy five years ago. KTF (Keenan Timber Frame) are timber frame housing experts based in Ardee Business Park, Ardee. The company has gone from strength to strength and will shortly relocate to a larger 15,000 sq ft premises at Hale Street, Ardee. "We couldn't have got into this business at a better time," John says. "As the four of us were already involved in the construction trade (John worked as a quantity surveyor), we decided to come together and set up KTF. There was an opening in the market and we decided to go for it." KTF is an established name both in the developer's market and in the one-off house builder's market. The company holds the edge over its competitors when it comes to the quality of its product and its pre-sale and after sales service. From base survey, KTF can design, manufacture and erect a standard size house within a six-week period. Each individual house is designed by an independent engineer and comes complete with a full set of summary sheet and signed certificate. All materials used in KTF houses comply with the European and British standards. KTF are members of ITFMA (Irish Timber Frame Manufacturers Association) and TRADA (Timber Research and Development Association). The company operates an NSAI approved quality control system throughout all of the manufacturing and erection phases. KTF is currently carrying out a major contract in Balbriggan for Fingal County Council which involves providing timber frames for 260 houses. Tweet

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