Two-thousand-and-six was a strange year for Naomh Fionnbarra (to put it mildly). The Togher men fancied their chances of booking a return to senior football but a disappointing Group A championship campaign meant they failed to make the knockout stage of the IFC. Next thing, they were looking over their shoulders amid a Division 2B dogfight, with the dreaded drop looming. In the end, they failed to make the Top Two and slipped down to the bottom grade. Sharpshooter Bernard Osborne reflects on a season where uncertainty abounded… It's nice to know where you stand. No such luxury for Naomh Fionnbarra in 2006! The men from John Markey Park will celebrate their 50th anniversary next year and the question on everybody's lips in '06 was 'what grade of football would they be playing to mark that landmark date?' Possibilities were threefold: they could go senior by winning the intermediate championship; they could retain their intermediate status by topping Division 2B or finishing second and winning the subsequent play-off (against the second-from-bottom team in 2A); or - worst case scenario - they might be one of the six 2B sides automatically demoted to junior football. Unfortunately, it was the latter scenario that came to pass. The law of averages alone meant that relegation would in all likelihood be the club's fate. There had never been a worse time to be playing in Division 2B, as only one of the eight teams therein was guaranteed sanctuary from the chop. At least six - and possibly seven - would drop to the bottom grade. Under such enormous pressure, it was hardly surprising that the Togher men endured a difficult year. The Green & Golds gave it their best shot but factors conspired against them. Alas, despite the inherent ability of the team, they failed to either move forward or to maintain their status quo. Instead, they unluckily moved in the wrong direction. Hunterstown Rovers took the Division 2B crown - and the McGahon Cup - while Sean McDermotts pipped both Naomh Fionnbarra and Lannleire in the race for the runner-up berth and a play-off. It was almost bizarre to see Naomh Fionnbarra, Lannleire, St Mochtas, Dowdallshill and Glen Emmets all packing their intermediate bags in one fell swoop. It's not often that a team with genuine prospects of booking a place in the top flight ends up going the other way. It was that kind of year: the majority of the teams in 2B were doomed before a ball was kicked. Talented Naomh Fionnbarra forward Bernard Osborne tries to make sense of it all: "It was a hard year in Division 2B because you had to either win the championship or finish in the top two; otherwise you were going junior. And junior football is a big slip for a club with aspirations to go senior. We knew we had to give it everything in the league and that's what the management drilled into us. We gave ourselves hope when we beat both Sean McDermotts and Hunterstown Rovers inside a week [in mid-late September]. First place was already beyond us at that stage but those results against the two top teams put us in with a shout of finishing second and earning a play-off against the second-from-bottom team in 2A." There was some change in personal, with the Finbarrs losing a couple of key man and gaining one: Nigel Shevlin transferred to Dreadnots and Mark Dunne joined Lannleire, while Martin Crosbie joined the Togher ranks. "It was a huge boost to get Martin," says Bernard. "With such a strong footballer in the team, we thought we would be able to give it a real go and senior football looked a distinct possibility. "We went senior in 2001 when we won the intermediate championship and we thought we had enough talent to do it again. We lost a quarter-final to [eventual winners] Dreadnots in 2004 and failed to get out of the group in '05, but this time we believed we had a god chance, even if we were in a really tough section." Indeed, Naomh Fionnbarra could hardly have been handed a more difficult task than that presented by Group A of the 2006 IFC. Dundalk Gaels and (eventual winners) Naomh Malachi were the two ante-post favourites to capture the Seamus Flood Cup, while Stabannon Parnells had just moved down after 16 glorious years in the top flight. Frustratingly, they lost their group opener to Stabannon by a point (0-10 to 1-6) at The Grove on June 18, a result which would come back to haunt them in a big way. After bouncing back with a wonderful 2-10 to 1-10 victory over the Gaels and a thrilling 2-8 to 1-10 defeat of a dogged Dowdallshill side, Naomh Fionnbarra approached their fourth and final group outing against Naomh Malachi with their fate very much in their own hands and the knockouts in sight. It didn't go according to plan, however, and the Courtbane men controversially prevailed by 1-7 to 0-9 in an evenly-contested match at Knockbridge on Friday August 25. The Finbarrs pushed the 2005 finalists all the way and deserved at least a draw. Indeed, it looked as though they would earn a vital point when they earned a free on the 14-metre-line right at the death but the whistle that echoed around Pairc an Chuinnigh indicated full time rather than a late free. To lose like that to the team that would go on to win the IFC outright was a big blow. Dundalk Gaels and Naomh Malachi progressed; Naomh Fionnbarra were out. "We were disappointed not to get to the latter stages," Bernard confirms. "Yes, it was a difficult group, but we knew we could get out. We felt hard done by in that Malachis game. Then again, we wouldn't have been in that situation if we hadn't lost to Stabannon the first day. We did well in the two games against the Gaels and Naomh Malachi, but losing to Stabannon - who beat us with the last kick of the ball -was our downfall." Was it a game the Finbarrs should have won? "We went in expecting to win but they had just come down from senior so it was always a tricky match and we didn't perform to our full capabilities. We knew it was going to be tough after that but we got more numbers training and lifted it to beat Dundalk Gaels and Dowdallshill. We were unlucky in the last game. "It was hard to take but we didn't give up. We kept it going at training and went on a good run in the league, knowing we were good enough to get ourselves out of trouble and earn a play-off place at least." In general, Naomh Fionnbarra have a very young team. Apart from the backbone if more experienced campaigners like [player-manager] Mark Devlin, Martin Crosbie, Brendan Healy, Gerry Leonard and Stephen Devlin, most of the lads are still under 23 and well capable of making a name for themselves at the highest level in the Wee County. Bernard Osborne has been on the first team for three years and the high-scoring forward has settled in even better than he had hoped. However, he's determined to get his hands on some championship silverware sooner rather than later! He represented Louth at U16 and minor level and is hoping to get another call-up for the U21s in 2007 (having opted out last year). "It would be great to get some experience at that level," he says. Regarding the strange club season that was 2006, he concludes: "We started off intermediate, knowing we could end up senior or junior - or still intermediate. Our preference would have been to go up senior because we know we have players capable of performing at that level. The younger players have some good, hard intermediate championship matches under their belts now and hopefully that'll stand to us all next year. "We would fancy our chances of coming straight back from junior, but some lads might not be too excited about the prospect of playing junior football so a lot depends on how the club reacts." The Naomh Fionnbarra side on duty against Naomh Malachi in the 2006 Louth intermediate championship was: Alan Matthews; Andrew McCann, Trevor Dolan, Hugh McGrane; Fergal Leonard, Shane Fanning, Darren McQuillan; John Doyle, Peter Markey (0-1); Darren Murphy, Martin Crosbie, Bernard Osborne (0-4); Oisin Magee, Brendan Healy (0-2), Paul Bannon. Subs: Conor O'Neill, Stephen Devlin, Neil Hand, Mark Devlin, Gerard Leonard Tweet

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