Consistency had been the hallmark of Dunsany's life in the Junior Football Championship for the best part of a decade, but a trend was broken in 2007 when they failed to reach the knockout stages and so their dream of a breakthrough in the grade goes on. When Dunsany advanced from their group in 2006 it represented the ninth successive year that they reached the knockout stages of the junior competition, but unfortunately losses in quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals have also been the order of the day for the club during that lengthy period. Once a team reaches the closing stages of a championship, hope starts to grow that this might just be their year and that has so often been the situation with Dunsany, before disappointment followed with the summit of the mountain coming ever more clearly into view. Last year they made their predictable journey through the group stages and then scored a clearcut victory over Moylagh in the quarter-finals, but with their thoughts very much on another big day out in Pairc Tailteann, Kilmainham defeated them comprehensively at the penultimate hurdle. For the 2007 Junior Championship Vinny Brennan took on the role of team manager, with former Walterstown and Meath player Gerry Reynolds and Gay Kennedy acting as selectors and, as always, there was a big interest in the outcome when the draws for the various grades were made earlier in the year. Dunsany came out in Group B and it certainly had all the appearances of a division from which they had the ability to advance and bring up the 10 in-a-row of appearances in the business end of the competition. Also in the group was the second string team from Summerhill, which looked quite useful, St. Brigid's, who had won the Junior B Championship the previous autumn, Bective, Moynalvey and St. Vincent's and looking at that line-up now it does seem something of a surprise that Dunsany didn't progress. Dunsany didn't exactly make the start to the group stages that they would have hoped for when the championship action got under way in April and they were favourites to get off the mark with a first round victory over Summerhill at Skryne. The 'Hill held a 1-4 to 0-5 advantage at the change of ends, but Dunsany rallied early in the second half, before the opposition got another goal to point them firmly in the direction of the two points. It finished 2-8 to 1-8. The Summerhill goal-scorers that day were Willie Milner and John Loughrey, both of whom went on to be part of their ever-improving senior set-up, so it was clear that that was a more than useful 'Hill junior team. Nonetheless, Dunsany would unquestionably have liked to open the title race with a win and there needed to be an urgency about their approach to the second round assignment against St. Vincent's at Ratoath. Dunsany needed a victory to get their qualification bid up and running and they achieved it with the minimum of fuss when they triumphed by all of 11 points on a 1-12 to 0-4 score line. A goal from Joey Keena helped them to a comfortable 1-6 to 0-3 lead at the break and they added a further six points in the second period, while restricting the Ardcath men to a single point. It was an encouraging performance from the team in red, with Mark Brennan topping the scoring on five points. Former county minor player Sean Stephens, Brendan O'Brien and Royal County hurler Stephen Clynch also proved particularly influential in a success that seemed likely to set Dunsany up for a serious assault on the quarter-finals. However, in keeping with the inconsistent nature of their championship campaign this year, Dunsany slipped up next time out when St. Brigid's pounced very late to snatch victory when the teams met in a third round tie at Dunganny. The Ballinacree team enjoyed a great day at Pairc Tailteann last October when they defeated Clonard in the Junior B Championship final and they certainly proved to be no pushover in their first year back in the Junior A ranks. It was more like an evening borrowed from autumn when they met Dunsany in a vital match in July and things were looking quite promising for Dunsany when Joey Keena provided them with the tonic of an early goal and they pushed into a five-point advantage at 1-3 to 0-1. But St. Brigid's are resilient and they refused to throw in the towel. They got a goal of their own when Brendan Briody found the net and with Dunsany managing to add only a further point to their first half tally a lead that had appeared healthy earlier stood at the minimum (1-4 to 1-3) when the whistle sounded for half-time. The men from the north-west of the county continued to impress in the early stages of the second period and edged ahead with a brace of points as their confidence grew, but Dunsany got what at the time looked like an all important second goal when Paul O'Donnell struck to give them the lead once again. Indeed, they extended their advantage and looked to be heading for back-to-back championship victories until St. Brigid's, to their credit, summoned up one mighty effort in the latter stages of the contest. The deadly accurate Fergal Hennessy proved to be their hero when he slotted over a couple of points to bring them back to parity and, with the game ticking deep into injury time, he scored a dramatic winner. It was a shattering way to lose for Dunsany and really put the pressure on them when they travelled to Summerhill for a local derby clash against unbeaten Moynalvey. They responded to the challenge admirably as they won by three points (0-12 to 0-9) thanks to one of their most polished performances of the year. The victory maintained their slim hopes of making it through to the business end of the championship race yet again, but it was certainly all to play for at the end of the first half when Dunsany just shaded the verdict on a 0-6 to 0-5 score line. They extended their lead after the change of ends as Conor Brennan turned in a highly accomplished performance, but Moynalvey were far from finished. They got moving once again and were marginally in front by 0-8 to 0-7 at the three-quarter stage as the excitement intensified. Dunsany opted for the tactic of pumping high balls into their full-forward line and it reaped rich dividends as they added a further five points to be three to the good at the end. Conor Brennan demonstrated his true value to the Dunsany cause when he is really on song by finishing with a highly impressive personal tally of seven points over the hour and the win at least kept Dunsany's interest in the title race alive as they got ready to meet Bective in the final round of group matches at Walterstown in late August. This was an important game for both clubs, with Dunsany needing a win by a wide margin to keep their quarter-final aspirations alive and Bective needing to avoid a heavy defeat in their efforts to stave off a dreaded battle for survival in the junior ranks. Football can be a funny old game and it was surely the team that lost that day which felt happiest - or should that be least disappointed? A four-point victory achieved by 1-10 to 1-6 wasn't good enough to prolong Dunsany's interest in the battle for the Matthew Ginnity Cup and for the first time in a long time they failed to see action in the knockout stages of the Junior Championship. For Bective it was a case of losing, but still doing enough to preserve their status in the third tier grade. Dunsany must have felt it was possible to revive their prospects when they dominated the majority of the first half and managed to restrict Bective to only two points. Ger O'Neill provided them with the considerable tonic of a goal in that period and when they retired with a six-point (1-5 to 0-2) advantage at the interval they looked to be heading in the right direction. They needed to maintain their scoring rate in the second half and prevent Bective from making too much of an impression on the score board, but that wasn't how it worked out as they tallied only five further points and conceded a damaging goal, as well as four more points, to be only four to the good at the end. Reaching quarter-finals had become a habit for Dunsany and there were also semi-finals and finals during that period of tremendous consistency which never brought the hoped for reward in the shape of the championship title. This year there was no knockout action to warm the blood and it's now a case of looking to next year and hoping things will be better. Surely nobody would begrudge Dunsany a championship title. Tweet

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