Ballinlough's 16 years in the top flight came to an end on the first Saturday of October in 2007 when survival specialists Kilmainhamwood defeated them decisively in the Senior Football Championship relegation final at Kells to send them back to the intermediate ranks. Last year Ballinlough produced the shock of the championship when they defeated Skryne in the opening round of group matches and that provided the launch pad for their survival as Cortown finished tailed off at the bottom of the section and said goodbye to their senior status when losing the relegation shoot out - also against Kilmainhamwood. But this year there were no such heroics to guard Ballinlough against the drop as they struggled throughout the competition, failed to win a match and suffered the consequences. It's now a matter of regrouping in the lower grade and building a solid base from where they can hopefully make an assault on the intermediate title at some stage in the future. Tom Keague was the Ballinlough manager for the 2007 campaign and when the championship draws were made early in the year they must have known it was going to be tough - very tough. Also in group A were Duleek, Dunshaughlin, Summerhill, Blackhall Gaels and Simonstown Gaels, so every match looked challenging. Summerhill, with Mattie Kerrigan and Paraic Lyons sharing the managerial duties, provided the first round opposition at Longwood and a 1-6 to 0-20 defeat set the tone for the struggle that was to follow. The 'Hill led by 0-8 to 0-2 at half-time and pushed 0-17 to 0-4 ahead, before Kenneth Rothwell gave Ballinlough's tally a more respectable appearance when he scored a well-taken goal eight minutes from the end. Pairc Tailteann was the venue for a second round assignment against Eamonn Barry's Duleek who won by 2-12 to 1-7. Peadar Byrne was sent off 12 minutes into the second half, but the issue was decided by that stage with the winners leading by nine points. They had raced into a 0-8 to 0-1 advantage after just 12 minutes, before a 20th minute goal from Peter Curran put more daylight between the teams. However, Ballinlough never stopped battling and aided by a goal from Rothwell they cut the deficit to 1-3 to 1-8 at the break. Duleek struck with a Colin Duignan goal 10 minutes into the second period to lead by 2-10 to 1-4 and that was essentially that. Dunshaughlin provided the opposition in a rearranged third round game, also at Pairc Tailteann, and despite missing a huge amount of chances Leo Turley's side won by 1-12 to 0-6. A 14th minute goal from Conor Staunton helped them to lead by 1-6 to 0-3 at the interval and the goal that Ballinlough needed to revive their fortunes never materialised. The nearest they came was when Rothwell blazed over the crossbar near the end. Ballinlough turned in a thoroughly committed performance next time out against Simonstown at Athboy, but they suffered a fourth successive group defeat as the Navan men won by 0-14 to 1-2 to keep their qualification hopes alive. Peadar Byrne scored their only point while assisted by the wind in the first half and they trailed by 0-1 to 0-8 at the change of ends. A goal from Seamus Byrne eight minutes into the second period gave Ballinlough hope as it cut the gap to 1-2 to 0-9, but they failed to register another score as Simonstown tagged on five more points to win with ease. A dream start failed to bring a first win of the group campaign when Ballinlough played Blackhall Gaels at Walterstown where the spectators were treated to six goals. Peadar Byrne and Terence Fagan netted in the early stages to give the reds real hope, but Blackhall battled back to be on level terms (1-5 to 2-2) at the interval after they had struck with a fortunate goal from Andy Dalton at the end of the half. Ballinlough might have doubled their goal tally on the restart when Rothwell and Colm Mallon both missed very good chances and then the inevitable happened as Tadhg Brosnan found the net for Blackhall. When Jonathan Meyler notched their third major seven minutes from the end they were ahead by 3-8 to 2-4 and the result wasn't in any doubt. However, there was still time for Dan McCartan to score another goal for Ballinlough who were behind by 3-4 to 3-10 when the final whistle sounded. Five defeats left them tailed off at the bottom of the group, with Duleek ahead of them thanks to that earlier win in the meeting of the teams. It all amounted to a do or die fight for survival against Kilmainhamwood who have developed a habit of condemning teams to the drop to the intermediate ranks. That game took place in Kells and the 'Wood won their fourth relegation final in the space of five years with a thoroughly merited 1-12 to 0-7 victory. In fairness to Ballinlough, they defended courageously in the opening quarter, but it always appeared to be only a matter of time before the Cavan-border outfit would take off. Peadar Byrne scored Ballinlough's only first half point after 12 minutes when his perseverance was rewarded and Kilmainhamwood were looking good with a 0-8 to 0-1 lead at the break. The advantage stretched to eight points within seconds of the restart, before Ballinlough began to play with real passion. Points from Peadar Byrne, who was later sent off for the second time in the championship, Kevin Devine and Carl O'Reilly enabled them to reduce the deficit to 0-4 to 0-9. But Kilmaimhamwood, who had Padraig Owens dismissed, soon upped the tempo and tagged on the next two points to copper-fasten their position of supremacy. When Paddy Carolan scored the only goal of the game they were home and hosed and Ballinlough were relegated back to the intermediate grade from where they had emerged in 1991. "It was a disappointment," said Ballinlough secretary Donal Crossan. "But we have been postponing the inevitable over the last number of years. It has been a fight against relegation. When the draw was made you would be asking yourself where were you going to get the points from. "We beat Skryne in the first round last year, but we got nothing out of it this year. We lost the backbone of our team in recent times, players like Declan Lynch, Jody Devine, Vinny Ryan, Philip O'Brien and many others. They were some players to lose and it leaves you short of leaders on the field. "Our manager Tom Keague is as good as you will get. If you had Sean Boylan there it wouldn't have made the difference. We have a lot of young players, good young players, coming along and we might get more from the Intermediate Championship. "We will try to give it a good go next year and hopefully get to the quarter-finals or semi-finals. I feel that we also need to get out of Division 3 in the league. We need to concentrate on getting up to Division 2." Naturally, it was disappointing when the great adventure in the senior ranks that stretched out over more than a decade and a half came to an end. But Crossan is realistic about the situation and clearly believes it is just a matter of accepting what has happened and getting on with it. "We are just going to have to live with the fact that we were relegated; it is as simple as that," he added. "We are not the first club it has happened to and we won't be the last. We held on at senior level for 16 years. "We could be playing a lot of local clubs in the Intermediate Championship which would add interest to it. We are hopeful for the future." UNDERAGE SUCCESS Ballinlough enjoyed a very significant under-age success in the early stages of the summer when they scored a clearcut 2-10 to 0-4 victory over St. Michael's in the U-14 FL Div. 4 final at Drumbaragh. They laid the foundations for their 12-point win in the opening period when they built up a very useful 1-7 to 0-2 half-time lead, with the goal coming from Michael Geraghty. Ballinlough succeeded in restricting the Carlanstown/Kilbeg combination to just two points again in the second period and that meant they were never in any real danger of being caught. But just to be sure they tagged on a further 1-3 themselves in that half, with a second goal from Mark McCullen putting the issue beyond doubt. This was a fine team performance from Ballinlough, with Johnny Reilly, Jack Tunney, Paul Farrally, McCullen, Jonathan O'Reilly, Kelly Allen and Geraghty especially impressive. The honour of receiving the cup from Juvenile Committee representative Maggie Morgan went to Ballinlough captain Jonathan O'Reilly. The Ballinlough team in the final was - B. Brady; J. Reilly, E. Kellett, J. Tunney; P. Farrelly, G. Reilly, S. Caffrey; M. McCullen (1-1), J. O'Reilly; K. McCaffrey, K. Allen (0-1), S. O'Reilly; J. McCullen (0-1), M. Geraghty (1-5), D. Balfe. Subs - D. Farrelly (0-1), T. Briody, J. Baugh, H. McCaffrey, K. McCaffrey, D. Gaughran. Tweet

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