St. Mary's certainly experienced contrasting fortunes in league and championship football during 2006. Their form in the A League Div. 4 was so consistent that it brought them all the way to the final, but the Junior Championship was dramatically different as they managed just one victory from seven group matches and finished tied at the bottom with St. Vincent's on two points. Former county forward Liam Smith, undoubtedly the best player the club has ever produced, again took on the role of team manager, with Paul Dunne and Pat Lenehan acting as selectors, and the trio could hardly have anticipated that the juniors would endure such a difficult championship campaign as they started with a string of defeats and, as a result, never looked likely to challenge for a place in the knockout stages. However, the league was different - very different. Their only defeats in Div. 4 came against the previous year's junior champions St. Michael's and a Kilmainham side that took the junior title race by storm in 2006. But apart from those two reversals in the opening two rounds there were also seven wins and a draw as they finished second in the table on 15 points, two adrift of the Carlanstown/Kilbeg combination on 17. That form was sufficient to earn St. Mary's promotion up to Div. 3 for next year and while they ultimately lost the final to a Daithi Regan-inspired St. Michael's, it represented a very good league campaign and begs the question - why did they struggle to such an extent when it came to the championship? St. Mary's league victories came against Meath Hill (1-8 to 1-7), Moynalty (1-8 to 0-4), Moylagh (0-10 to 0-9), St. Brigid's (1-14 to 2-6), Bective (0-15 to 2-8), Clann na nGael (2-9 to 1-4) and Drumbaragh (2-8 to 0-5), while they drew with Dunsany (0-6 to 1-3), and with several of those clubs reaching the business end of the Junior Championship it's easy to see the amazing contrast in league and championship form. The A League Div. 4 final took place at Walterstown in September and, as St. Michael's had inflicted a 0-9 to 1-2 defeat on St. Mary's in the opening round of the competition they were obvious favourites to clinch the title. And that's how it worked out as Regan contributed a highly significant 2-2, but the final went to extra-time and Mary's might well have won it in normal time, before Michael's scored by four points (2-11 to 1-10). County player Regan got the first of his goals in the opening period and St. Michael's were also four points (1-6 to 1-2) to the good at the interval in normal time after Mary's had recovered well from a poor start, with Petey Watters getting their goal in the 20th minute. Mary's will look back on the second half and wonder what might have been. They missed several goal chances in that period and in the end had to rely on a late point from Watters, when he could well have goaled, to force the match to extra-time. They managed only a point from Robert Victory in the additional 20 minutes and were punished for spurning so many opportunities when Regan notched a crucial second goal for Michael's to settle the issue. Brian Lynch, Paul Scanlon, David Smith, Stephen Bishop, who was particularly brilliant, Brian Smith and Tony Grifferty were most impressive for Mary's. The St. Mary's team in the final was - F. Barnett; P. Scanlon, B. Lynch, E. Craven; C. Lenehan, N. Craven, D. Smith; J. Moore, B. Smith; S. Bishop (0-4), R. Victory (0-2), T. McDonnell; T. Grifferty (0-3), M. Morrison, P. Watters (1-1). Subs - C. Drew for Morrison, R. Callaghan for N. Craven, Craven for Callaghan. As far as the Junior Championship was concerned it was a completely different story for St. Mary's who have to look all the way back to 1979 for their triumph in the grade. They were drawn in Group A, a section that also included a very strong St. Ultan's team, the previous year's Junior B winners Boardsmill, Dunsany, Moynalvey, Clann na nGael, Dunboyne's second string and St. Vincent's, who were also to struggle in a big way during the divisional campaign. Mary's could hardly have asked for a tougher test of their credentials than a first round meeting with St. Ultan's at Kilberry and the Bohermeen/Martry combination scored their expected win as they came out of top by nine points on a 0-12 to 0-3 score line. Smith's men were still very much in contention when they trailed by 0-3 to 0-6 at the break, but they failed to add to their tally in the second period when Ultan's added six more points to triumph with ease. Boardsmill were in the same position as Mary's when the sides met in the second round at Bective. Both teams had lost first time out, so a victory was vitally important in order to get the championship campaign firmly back on the rails. And it was the 'Mill who got it when they pushed clear in the first half to open up a 0-9 to 0-3 interval lead. Mary's improved significantly in the second period when they added seven points, but the south Meath team notched 1-3 and that was sufficient to leave them ahead by 1-12 to 0-10 at the finish. When St. Mary's made the short trip to Duleek to meet St. Vincent's they knew it was a match they were more than capable of winning. They also knew it represented a must win situation if they were to maintain their ambitions of making it through to the knockout stages of the championship. The outcome was a very disappointing reversal as the men from Ardcath scored the last three points of the game to win by 0-10 to 0-8. There was little in it at the interval when St. Vincent's shaded it by 0-6 to 0-4, but Mary's recovered well to move into a one-point lead, before they were mugged with the winning post in sight when Vincent's struck with that late salvo of scores. A fourth championship defeat on the bounce followed for St. Mary's when they came face to face with Dunboyne's second string at Ratoath. They appeared to have every chance of achieving a first victory of the marathon group campaign when leading by a goal (1-2 to 0-2) at the change of ends, but a poor tally of only two points in the second half was never likely to be sufficient as a brace of goals put Dunboyne firmly on the road to success. The breakthrough win finally came in the fifth round at Walterstown when Moynalvey were overcome by the minimum margin (0-13 to 0-12), but St. Mary's failed to build on that triumph and suffered very narrow defeats in their last two group matches. Mary's held a wind-assisted 1-5 to 0-5 half-time lead against Clann na nGael at Kilberry and they looked capable of making it back-to-back wins for much of the second period. However, the Athboy/An Gaeltacht combination caught them late with a couple of points to win by 1-12 to 1-11. When Mary's pushed five points (0-7 to 0-2) clear by half-time in their seventh and final group game against Dunsany at Skryne they looked capable of inflicting a defeat on one of the more fancied sides for outright honours. However, they faded badly in the second half when they added only a point to their tally and with Dunsany notching 1-5 in the same period they were two points ahead at the end, winning by 1-7 to 0-8. To say the least, it had been a difficult Junior Championship campaign for St. Mary's, bringing only one victory from seven outings, yet they fared significantly better in the A League Div. 4 when wins were the norm rather than the exception. "We got off to a bad start in the Junior Championship," said selector Pat Lenehan. "The attitude didn't seem great early on, but we sat down one night after training and asked the players did they want to be playing Junior B football next year or did they want to give it a real go. To be fair to them, they responded and gave it a real go after that and trained very hard for the league. "We lost our first two games in the league against St. Michael's and Kilmainham, but remained unbeaten after that. It was a big disappointment to lose the final because we really played well and could have won it. But we missed a lot of goal chances and at the end of the 60 minutes Petey Watters was clean through, one on one with the St. Michael's goalkeeper. "Tony Grifferty thought we were level at that stage and shouted at him to take a point. He thought we had won it with that score, but Petey's point was actually the equaliser and Michael's then beat us in extra-time. It was very disappointing because we knew we could have won it. "Looking to next year, we feel we have the talent there. We will be playing in Div. 3 of the league and, hopefully, that will bring out the best in us. We seem to play well against the better teams." Tweet

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