Lady luck deserts Longwood
November 30, 2007
In the last couple of years, Longwood have been touted as potential JFC winners and although they have traded blows with the best in the business, they are still awaiting a breakthrough to the Intermediate ranks. 2007 marked another frustrating year for the club as they failed to progress to the knockout stages, despite only suffering one defeat in six outings.
In any other year, the four victories and one draw that Longwood achieved in Group A would have been sufficient to claim a berth in the last eight. But such was the competitiveness of their group this year that Pat Flynn's charges were edged out of the running by Moylagh who went through by virtue of better score difference.
There has been a wealth of underage talent filtering through the club in the last decade and one of the current stars is county panellist Michael Burke. Reflecting on the season, he felt that the loss of top class players Rory Maguire and Aaron Ennis hindered their progress through the championship.
"We were only bet once all year. It was very disappointing not to have done better but we were missing Rory Maguire and Aaron Ennis all year through injury and it is very hard to cope without players of that calibre," Burke said.
Moylagh and St Mary's were the only teams to take points off Longwood and in the end it was probably a stalemate with the latter in the opening round of the championship that costs them their slot in the knockout stages. The 0-10 apiece draw was probably a fair result but Longwood improved significantly as the competition progressed and arguably deserved a larger slice of luck along the way.
Next up was a struggling Drumree outfit that caused the Lilywhites plenty of problems. After a ferocious tussle, Longwood eventually prevailed by the minimum of margins, 0-9 to 0-8. This was the first of two games which Longwood came out on top of by the slenderest of margins.
Curraha were also forced to suffer a similar fate as Longwood showed great resolution in the closing stages to carve out a hard fought 1-11 to 1-10 victory. At that staged, it looked as though Longwood were on course for a place in the last four.
The one result that will sicken Longwood is beating eventual champions Clann na nGael by a comfortable three points, 0-12 to 1-6 and that was achieved without the talented trio of Burke, Maguire and Ennis.
"We played Clann na nGael in Pairc Tailteann and we were missing myself, Rory (Maguire) and Aaron (Ennis) and we still managed to beat them. We are beating all the teams in the A League. We definitely are underachieving," Burke stated.
But after easily accounting for Boardsmill by 2-9 to 0-7, Longwood's bubble's burst when then needed it to float most. The last round of group games saw them face Moylagh and a poor display cost them further progress in the competition, losing out 0-8 to 0-11.
Speaking about the defeat, Burke was of the opinion that the small pitch in Kildalkey didn't play to his team's strengths and admitted that he was gutted when he realised that they would be packing their bags.
"We seemed to play poor in small pitches as it didn't suit our running game and the game against Moylagh was in Kildalkey. They got loads of men behind the ball and the game just didn't suit us."
"We were top of the table going into that game and if we had have won it we were through in top spot but we ended up losing and we were knocked out. It was gut wrenching stuff only losing one game all year and yet you were out of the championship."
But the one thing that Longwood have on their side is youth. Burke was keen to stress that a huge effort is going to be put in next year to try and ensure that they will be parachuted to Intermediate football.
"We are going to try and put in a massive push next year to try and win this Junior A championship. I really think we can as we have a couple of lads after coming into the village and we should be well able to compete with the best of teams.
"There are good young lads coming through. They won the Under 16 this year and they got to an Under 15 final so there is still plenty coming through.
"It's gone beyond a joke at this stage and hopefully next year we can put it right provided we can stay away from injuries which hampered us this year."
Hurlers stumble at penultimate hurdle
After slipping off the senior stage a couple of years ago, it was expected by many that 2007 would be the perfect opportunity for Longwood to make their return to the top table. But after making the first step by getting out of the group stages, the second step proved one too far when Clann na nGael got the better of them.
It was a disappointing end to a year that promised so much. Longwood started off their campaign in devastating fashion, dishing out a 3-20 to 1-2 hammering to Wolfe Tones. Kilskyre couldn't stop their rich vein of form in the second outing either as the men in white waltzed to a 3-11 to 1-12 victory.
But their form tailed off some what from their on in and defeats to Donaghmore/Ashbourne and Clann na nGael followed. The situation was rectified with a 2-16 to 2-6 victory over Gaeil Colmcille. That success copper-fastened a semi-final slot for the club.
But the last four clash didn't go according to plan as eventual winners Clann na nGael came out on top on a scoreline of 2-16 to 2-11. Dual star Burke admitted that the hurlers should have made more of an impact in the competition but thinks that a breakthrough might just be around the corner.
"We probably played below ourselves this year. Definitely we could have played better in the semi-final. I was sure who ever won semi-final would go on to win the competition," Burke said.
But Burke was not rueing that setback too much and actually feels that it might just be a blessing in disguise. According to Burke, there is a crop of hugely talented hurlers that are a couple of years away from making a senior appearance and he feels that hurling could really take off in the club when they come through.
"In hindsight it is good that we didn't go up as we have a few fabulous hurlers that are just too young to play and if we can go up in the next two years they will be able to come through. And you never know, maybe we would be able to do a bit of a Kiltale and cause a bit of a surprise," Burke concluded.
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