Having slipped from senior football at the end of 2005, O'Connells went into the new year intent on booking an instant return to the top flight. With only the knockout competition offering such a prize, the Castlebellingham/Kilsaran men duly set about the task of trying to win their first ever IFC. They couldn't possibly have gone much closer to achieving this objective but, unfortunately, Colm Kearney and co. were pipped in the county decider in mid-November. When the powers that be decided to reshuffle the club deck in the Wee County, it meant that 2006 was going to be a difficult year for many. This included Louth's 14 intermediate clubs, many of whom would be relegated to the junior grade. With only one promotion place available, the prospects for intermediate clubs were fairly bleak. They had no choice, though, only to get on with it… After two years in the senior championship, O'Connells found themselves back in the middle tier. Playing in the higher division (2A), they were offered only one possible path back to the big time: winning the county intermediate championship. For the first time, the winners of the intermediate league would not go senior. Naturally, the championship therefore took priority but it was also important not to completely neglect the league as even the clubs in 2A were not immune from the threat of relegation to junior fare (the bottom side would go down; the second-from bottom would enter a relegation play-off). Of course, the possibility of this setback never even entered O'Connells' thoughts. After all, they'd just rubbed shoulders with the best on the county for two years. From the outset in 2006, they set their minds on winning the championship and re-securing senior football. And they came so, so close to realising this ambition. Having reached the final with a 100% record, O'Connells were favourites to see off beaten 2005 finalists Naomh Malachi and claim the Seamus Flood Cup at Louth village on Sunday November 15. Despite dominating much of the game, however, they were beaten by a single point, 1-9 to 1-8. The Courtbane men probably displayed a bit more composure on the day and O'Connells' entire season went up in ashes on the back of one below-par display. O'Connells started the final impressively with two Stuart Reynolds points in as many minutes and they led by 1-5 to 0-5 at the interval thanks to Dean Stanfield's goal. But the Malachis went ahead through Ronan McElroy's 53rd minute goal - and that score proved to be the last of the competition. Try as they might, O'Connells could not draw level and four wides in the last six minutes tells the story of a frustrating day. It was less than the Maroons deserved. They suffered a double blow in 2005 with the loss of both their senior status (by a fine margin) and the transfer of team talisman Mark Stanfield to Armagh club Killeavy. But O'Connells recovered from this two-pronged setback to produce arguably the best football of the 2006 IFC - particularly in their stirring 0-12 to 0-9 semi-final victory over fancied Dundalk Gaels - only to misfire when it mattered most. One of the many positives to emerge from the year was Colm Kearney's ascension onto the county senior panel, wherein the O'Connells man is capable of making quite an impact. Reflecting on the events of 2006, the energetic midfielder admits: "It was a sickening blow to be beaten by one point in the final. We probably had the better of the game. Personally, I thought we played better football but we couldn't score and paid the price." The players and backroom team were disappointed in the aftermath of the IFC decider as their objective for the year was cast in stone: "Our target was to go back up and there was only one way up. So we set out to win the intermediate championship. That was the only prize worth winning and anything less was always going to be seen as a disappointment." After opening their Group C programme with a resounding 1-20 to 3-4 victory over St Mochtas, O'Connells emerged from their section with a perfect record, adding the scalps of Lannleire (1-9 to 0-8) and St Nicholas (1-9 to 1-8) in much closer contests. This was sufficient to book a semi-final date with competition favourites Dundalk Gaels and O'Connells went into that game as clear outsiders (the Ramparts men won the other two intermediate competitions available to them in '06). O'Connells produced a rousing display to progress to the final with a brilliant 100% record. "It was going well at that stage. The Gaels had been a very tough game but we made a big effort as a team," Colm recalls. "We'd prefer to be underdogs and we probably did go into the final as slight favourites, even if we didn't see it that way ourselves." The 1-20 tally in the first game must have filled the whole team with confidence? "We got off to a flier but we knew we were in one of the handiest groups, coming up against against teams from the bottom half of intermediate. So we couldn't get carried away about the group results…" Gerry Fox, Derek Walsh and Ian McGrory were in charge of the team and very nearly masterminded the instant rebound. Alas, however, O'Connells must now shake themselves down and prepare for an even more difficult IFC in 2007 (with the likes of the Clans and Roche Emmets coming down). "We have nothing to fear from any of those teams," Colm Kearney states defiantly. "We have played most of those teams and we have beaten them. We will give it another go next year and we fully intend to be in the shake-up again. There's no team there that we're not capable of beating." Colm has no doubt that O'Connells are worth a place in the top flight: "The football we play is worthy of senior and we have to go out and prove it. On our day, we can beat any team in the county. The intermediate championship is our target again next year and we have every chance of winning it." Colm - who featured previously under Val Andrews - broke back into the Louth senior panel during the successful Tommy Murphy Cup campaign after some outstanding displays in the group stage of the IFC caught Eamonn McEneaney's attention. He's hoping to push for a regular place with Louth in the coming season. The 22-year-old has been a first-team regular with O'Connells since he was 16 and has many more bright years ahead of him in both the maroon and red shirts. As for O'Connells, for the second successive year they can consider themselves desperately unlucky not to be a senior club. O'Connells, 2006 Louth intermediate football championship finalists: S Connolly; W McKeever, D Doyle, S Hoey (0-1); J Carroll, K Woods, A Brennan; J Crosby, C Kearney (0-2); D Stanfield (1-0), P McKeever (0-1), C Doyle; N Conlon, S Reynolds (0-4), S Rafei. Subs: PJ Tuite, J Conlon, J Agnew Tweet

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