The sign of a successful season is not always about the number of trophies you have collected by the year's end. After a hectic year, Sean O'Mahonys know that more than most. The Point Road club's exploits in the previous campaign meant that they entered this season with the proud honour of being Dundalk's only senior club. Right from the beginning though they were tipped to go straight back down with many believing they lacked the necessary quality to cope with life at the top table. In fairness the signs were ominous from the very start. The O'Mahonys were well out of their depth in the senior championship campaign of 2005 and while their league performances of that season could not be faulted they would have now have to perform in the championship to avoid relegation. The change of format in Louth football meant that a poor championship campaign would result in a drop down to the intermediate grade and immediately the O'Mahonys were earmarked as possible candidates having been one of the three sides to make the cut the previous year in Division 1B. Their cause wasn't helped when they were drawn in Group B of the championship with peninsula heavyweights St Patrick's and Cooley Kickhams, the previous year's Cardinal O'Donnell finalists Glyde Rangers, reigning intermediate champions Naomh Malachi and an ever improving Kilkerley Emmets side. Things were made all the more difficult for the Dundalk side by the fact that renovations at their pitch on the Point Road meant that they would be without a home for much of the year. While that would be an obvious disadvantage for their Division One league campaign, it also meant that had no permanent base to train from and this appeared as if it would be a problem right from their opening game. The O'Mahonys, managed by long-serving defender Alan Craven, had a difficult start to the year when they were paired with the Newtown Blues for their opening league match. It was the first of many of their matches to be played away from the Point Road with Pairc Eire Og providing the venue for their first game as Dundalk's only senior outfit. To their credit, the O'Mahonys kept with their opponents for much of the game but they faded out of it in the final quarter allowing the Blues to run out comfortable 1-10 to 0-6 winners. It suggested that the Seans were not quite fit enough to compete at this grade and with no home pitch to train on more than a few people began to doubt whether they would be able to avoid relegation from both the senior grade and Division One. The fact one of their key forwards Stephen Fisher would be unavailable for much of the year due to army service in Kosovo didn't make things much easier as persistent injuries disrupted any plans management had of keeping a consistent line-up in place. If there is one thing the O'Mahonys have in abundance though, it's spirit and despite all the odds being stacked against them from an early stage they pulled together and started to do what they do best - upsetting the odds. They wasted little time in doing it either. A fortnight's break after the Blues game gave them a chance to recover from that setback and what a recovery it was as they embarked on an impressive run of three successive victories which included wins over Naomh Mairtin, St Joseph's and perhaps most impressively away to Cooley Kickhams. A blip then occurred with the club losing two league matches heavily to Mattock Rangers and St Mary's either side of back-to-back defeats in the opening two rounds of the championship - firstly to Kilkerley Emmets and secondly to St Patrick's. All of a sudden the doubters had returned and once more the O'Mahonys were earmarked for the drop. Another league defeat to St Brides put the club even further under pressure. Anyone who knows the O'Mahonys knows they don't go down without a fight and in late July they claimed what proved to be their only win in Group B of the championship with a 0-10 to 0-8 success over Glyde Rangers. It wasn't enough to save their slide, however, as a league defeat to Naomh Malachi was followed up with a loss to Cooley Kickhams in the championship. Amazingly by the end of August the club still had a chance of advancing to the latter stages of the championship as they prepared for their final Group B clash with Naomh Malachi in Louth Village. And for a long time it looked like Dundalk's only senior club would make it into the quarter-finals as they led their opponents for much of the way before conceding 1-6 unanswered in the second half to lose out by 1-10 to 1-8. That left them joint bottom of the group with Glyde Rangers and facing into a play-off match. A win and their senior status would be secured but defeat would see them enter a relegation play-off match with reigning county champions St Joseph's - something neither side wanted. Once again the O'Mahonys looked like they were on the way to victory over the Tallanstown men in Knockbridge but for the second game in succession they conceded 1-6 unanswered to lose by 2-12 to 2-9 in the end. The Point Road outfit were now facing a dreaded do-or-die match with St Joseph's and things were not looking good for them. When they needed to produce the goods, they did though and inspired by Barry Mackin, David Dowling, Stephen Fisher, Garry Mulligan, Brendan Nordon and the outstanding Tony Del Duca they overcame the Darver and Dromiskin men by 0-12 to 0-9 in a tense affair at Castlebellingham. The O'Mahonys were safe and it felt good. So good in fact that full forward David Dowling described it as good as winning Joe Ward itself. Speaking after that game, he said: "It just feels like winning the thing. We're just ecstatic and if you go into the dressing-room in about two minutes time you'll hear the biggest sing-song that you've ever heard. "It was just pure determination and that was great to see. It was just 15 lads going out there looking out for each other and looking after each other. "We just couldn't keep on collapsing. It was about time we did it. It was all about character at the end of the day," said the former Louth junior panellist. Dowling said he was overjoyed to still be playing senior football but admitted that the club hoped to build on that next season and perhaps emulate what Naomh Malachi had achieved by reaching the latter stages of the competition. "The main thing was to stay up senior but now we want to work on it. The Malachis got to the quarter final after beating us by just a couple of points. We're happy enough at the moment but we're looking to build on it next year. We want to be reaching quarter-finals and semi-finals and who knows after that," said Dowling. Of course, the club's year was far from over and there was still the small matter of survival in the league to take into account. However, that win over St Joseph's turned to be a turning point in their season and they followed it up with a ten point win over Glyde Rangers which more or less secured their safety. Another win over Kilkerley Emmets a number of weeks later made sure of it. The O'Mahonys finished the year without a trophy but their achievement of staying up felt just as good. They had achieved their goal for the year. Now they want to build on it. Tweet

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