Dundalk Gaels have enjoyed their fair share of success in recent years and the 2007 season will go down in the club's history as one to treasure. The Dundalk men capped a memorable year by landing the Intermediate championship and league to ensure they ended their three-year stay in the grade. The completion of the double means they will be playing at the top level of competition next season, which all at the club hope will help them develop further as a team. Gaels will undoubtedly be aware of the fact that on the last occasion they won the Intermediate championship they failed to make the expected impression at senior level, and are determined to set the record straight this time around. The all-conquering team of 2003 that won league and championship before landing the Leinster Intermediate title, failed to hold on to their senior status that following season and according to star player, Derek Crilly, their first priority is to keep themselves in the top grade. He is confident this objective can be achieved and with a lot of young players having forced their way into the first team, he feels they have a real chance of making an impression at senior level over the coming years. "Winning the Intermediate championship this year was a great feeling but the real challenge for us is to build on that next season. "The real work starts for us now as in order to make progress we have to put in a big effort. Our priority at the start has to be to stay up as it would be very disappointing to go back down after working so hard to get out of Intermediate. "For any team going up it is important to get off to a good start, win a few games early on and build from there. It is a new challenge for a lot of the players as we will be facing better teams but hopefully that will help us all improve." For Derek, 2007 saw him win his second championship with the club and he believes that this was much sweeter than the first four years earlier. "It really was a fantastic season for us to win the league and championship particularly after losing two semi-finals to Naomh Malachi and O'Connells over the past two years." Despite those disappointments, Derek points out that the players began the season in determined mood to make up for sense that they had left the championship behind them on both occasions. "Everyone was very enthusiastic at the start of the year and we set ourselves a target of winning the league, but as always the championship was the main target. "Manager Niall Lambert put in a huge effort to get us all fit and he is a great man to get you motivated. I have been with him from underage level and I have always found him to be a great manager and all the players have the highest respect for him." After the promising start, Gaels did hit a bit of a blip in the middle of the season as the championship approached but had sufficient quality to get themselves back into the hunt. "The league really started well for us as I think we won five out of the first six games, but them we hit a bit of a dodgy spell and didn't manage to turn things around for the start of the championship. "We lost our first game to O Raghallaighs and then just scraped past St Kevins before getting a second win against Roche. "We slipped up again in the next match when we lost to Dreadnots which meant that we had to beat Hunterstown Rovers in the final group match to be sure of staying in the championship. Although we did beat them we only avoided a play-off because Roche dropped a point in their game which meant we went through to the quarter-final." It was at that stage of the competition that Derek feels things really began to click into place for the team and they grew in confidence with each match. "I think that when we got to the knock-out stages we just went for it. At that stage many others didn't expect too much from us and we were probably second or third favourites so we felt we had nothing to lose. "We played against the O'Connells in the quarter-final and although it was a struggle in the first half we really came good after the break. I think that victory was the turning point and it gave us the confidence to go on from there," said the 21-year-old DkIT student. However, Gaels faced a difficult task against town rivals, Na Piarsaigh, in the semi-final and after getting the rub of the green in the first game, they came good in the replay. "That was a tough game for us and we probably should have lost the first game but we managed to hang in for a draw. Then in the replay we did very well and got the scores when it mattered to qualify for the final," said Derek. That set up a meeting with Dreadnots in the Intermediate Championship final where the Gaels turned in one of their best displays to take home the Seamus Flood Cup. "We knew that was going to be a difficult game as they had a good mix of talented young players and experience, but we felt we were in with a good chance if we performed to our potential. "On the day we were very relaxed and fortunately we did enough to win the game and that's what it is all about in a final. Winning this year was even better than the last time because there were more of the lads that I grew up with on the team which makes it more special. It is great that we have so many in the 18 to 22 age bracket so hopefully we will be able to progress over the coming years and make an impact at senior level." Just to cap off a fine season, Gaels went on to land the Division 2 league title and Derek feels it was the confidence gained from the championship that enabled them to do so. "Over the closing games of the year we had the momentum and probably the fitness levels that brought us through. It was a great way to finish the season and you have to enjoy these things when they happen so the celebrations went on for a few weeks", concluded Derek. The Intermediate Final took place at Ardee on October 7 with Gaels coming out on top on a 1-9 to 0-8 scoreline. The team and scorers was as follows: Scorers: Derek Crilly (0-4, 4f), Peter O'Kane (1-0), Conall McArdle (0-2), Anthony McSorley (0-2), Sean Fee (0-1). Gaels: Stephen Faulkner; Sean Martin, Jamie Faulkner, David Moley; Ray Rooney, Aidan Delaney, David Moloney; Derek Crilly, Sean McCann; Ciaran Culligan, Sean Fee, Conal McArdle; Errol Boyle, Peter O'Kane, Anthony McSorley. Subs: David McComish for C Culligan; Andrew Coleman for C McArdle. Tweet

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