This time 40 years ago Kilbride were Senior Football champions and had provided a brilliant full-back to the Meath team that brought the county its third All-Ireland SFC title. Jack Quinn was an outstanding servant to club and county over many glorious years of honest endeavour and back in 1967 he was an integral part of a Royal County side that made up for the disappointment of losing the '66 All-Ireland final to Galway by getting the better of Cork in the decider thanks to a magnificent second-half performance. Those were very satisfying and proud days for Kilbride as the 1960s marked their arrival as a major force on the Meath footballing scene with a team that was back-boned by the Quinn brothers - Jack, Martin, Gerry and Jimmy. They won the JFC in 1960 and made the big leap to the senior ranks when annexing the IFC title in '62. Their progress was rapid and impressive and they made the SFC breakthrough in '64, before regaining the title in '67 and later achieving a fabulous three in-a-row between '69 and '71. They were truly an outstanding team. Their input to Meath's Sam Maguire Cup triumph in '67 added to the club's standing within the county and, apart from the mighty Jack Quinn, the panel also included his club mates and brothers Martin and Gerry, as well as Pat Rooney, Pat Bruton and Murty O'Sullivan. That was some representation for one small rural club. Of course, time changes all things and today Kilbride are a junior club - but still a proud one which dreams of a return to those type of glory days. There were hopeful signs in the 2006 campaign when Kilbride made it through to the Junior Championship preliminary quarter-final against Drumbaragh, but the absence of John Bruton, John Smith and Paddy O'Neill weakened them significantly and they were beaten by seven points (1-4 to 1-11). Hope springs eternal and Kilbride went into the 2007 championship in Group D, a section that also included Kilmainham, who had taken the previous year's battle for the Matthew Ginnity Cup by storm as they marched all the way to the final where they lost out to St. Ultan's. Also in the section were Meath Hill, who had reached the quarter-finals in 2006 where they lost to Longwood, and the second string teams representing Simonstown Gaels, Dunboyne, who also got through to the last eight in '06 where they bowed out against Kilmainham, and Gaeil Colmcille. It was a tricky looking group but, as Kilbride's form demonstrated, with a bit more consistency and a little bit of luck who knows what might have happened. As it turned out, Kilbride lost the three matches against the second string teams they might have been expected to beat, namely Gaeil Colmcille, Dunboyne and Simonstown, but beat the 2006 runners-up Kilmainham and a clearly improving Meath Hill side. By the time they achieved those victories far too much damage had already been inflicted to their qualification hopes as the three defeats had come in the opening three rounds, starting with the Kells side at Bohermeen when a poor first half showing proved to be Kilbride's downfall. Gaeil Colmcille raced into a 10-point (1-8 to 0-1) advantage at the interval and that left Kilbride with a mountain of Everest proportions to climb in the second half. They never reached that impossible summit, but with David Barron, John Smith, Cormac Holland and Robert Rooney proving particularly effective they closed the gap to five points, before they had two 'goals' disallowed. There was no way back after that and Gaeil Colmcille prevailed on a 2-12 to 1-7 score line. Dunsany was the venue for a second round match against a useful looking Dunboyne second string and it was the St. Peter's men who maintained their good start to the championship when securing a double scores (1-11 to 0-7) victory. Kilbride made a disappointing start when they conceded a damaging goal early on and they managed only a couple of first half points as Dunboyne pushed into a 1-6 to 0-2 lead at the change of ends. Kilbride fared somewhat better in the second period when they added five points to their tally, but they were seven points adrift at the final whistle. Those two straight defeats left Kilbride in a very precarious position and their third round clash with Simonstown at Dunshaughlin represented a must win situation if they were to entertain any hope of being involved in the business end of the competition and ease the threat of a relegation battle. This was a game they will feel they should have won as the Navan men snatched victory in the most dramatic of circumstances to firmly sound the death knell to Kilbride's quarter-final prospects. In reality, Simonstown should have been well clear at the break, but several missed chances in the first half meant they led by only 0-5 to 0-3 and there was still hope for Kilbride. There was significant improvement in the second period, so much so that Kilbride took the lead. However, like Simonstown in the first half, they too fluffed chances which would have enabled them to increase their advantage and they were punished in injury time when substitute Ciaran O'Reilly pounced for the game's only goal that earned the town side victory by the narrowest of margins (1-7 to 0-9). Kilmainham had been the fancy of many to go all the way at the start of the championship, but things didn't work out that way. However, they were still the obvious favourites to get the better of pointless Kilbride when the teams met in the fourth round of group matches at Walterstown. Kilbride had lost to Kilmainham by only a point in an earlier A League Div. 4 encounter and having already suffered three successive defeats in the championship this looked like a very big ask indeed. But to their credit Kilbride responded with a win that killed off Kilmainham's championship dream. John Bruton, Brian White, Craig Sheridan and Dave Harford were among the key performers as they led by 0-6 to 0-5 at half-time on the way to a 1-11 to 1-8 victory that earned them their first group points and greatly eased the threat of relegation. Kilbride doubled their tally when they met Meath Hill at Simonstown in their final divisional match which they won by 1-9 to 0-10. The north county side qualified for the knockout stages despite the defeat and had looked capable of concluding their group campaign with a win when they held a 0-6 to 0-4 lead at the break. However, a Dave Harford goal early in the second period proved decisive for Kilbride on a day when Brian White, Craig Sheridan, John Bruton and Eamon Farrell played especially well. When all was said and done and Kilbride had completed their group campaign they hadn't managed to achieve their obvious number one goal of reaching the knockout stages, yet they had succeeded in beating two of the most fancied teams in the section - 2006 runners-up and one of the favourites for outright success this year, Kilmainham, and Meath Hill. Four points was never going to be enough to keep Kilbride's interest in the championship alive and they were left to wonder just what might have happened had they managed to hold on for victory in that third round assignment against Simonstown. "We came into form too late," said Kilbride's Jason Sheedy as he reflected on the campaign. "The third round game against Simonstown basically defined our campaign. We should have won that game, but they caught us with a goal against the run of play and beat us. Fair play to them, they kept at it. We had no complaints. "From the potential to qualify for the knockout stages if we had won that match we found ourselves having to focus our attentions on not ending up in a relegation play-off. Football can be a funny game at times and a hop of a ball here or there can make such a difference." Kilbride certainly didn't make the start to the championship they would have desired when they were well beaten by Gaeil Colmcille, but they were severely understrength for that opener. "For our first game against Gaeil Colmcille we were without a number of regulars, including Brian White, who has been a mainstay of our team, and two of the Sheridans," he added. "The reality is that we can ill afford to be without players like them. "We had also started slowly in the league, but we got one or two players back after our first match or two in the championship and things improved in the latter stages. "We had been hopeful going into the championship this year after making it to the preliminary quarter-final last year, so I suppose it was disappointing not to qualify this time. But we are relatively young, with a couple of seasoned campaigners. We fielded a second team for the first time in many years this year, so that was a positive thing. We just have to keep at it." Tweet

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