Glyde Rangers were the most progressive senior team in the Wee County in 2004. The Tallanstown men set the pace at the top of Division 1A for virtually the entire season and qualified for the final of the Cardinal O'Donnell Cup. They also came within a kick of the ball of a SFC semi-final place. David Devaney, who represented the club with distinction on the Louth senior football team, discusses the minutiae of an eventful year with 'Wee County 2004'. Glyde have been busy. Building up a head of steam. Since taking their place in senior ranks, the Sky Blues have learned how to give as good as they get. Two-thousand-and-four was another year where progress was patently perceptible. Displaying a healthy and admirable disregard for either reputation or tradition, Glyde impressively set about their '04 task. Winners of the Division 1B title in 2003, they found themselves rubbing shoulders with the county's top dogs. While some clubs find this a major step-up, the scenario didn't faze Glyde in the slightest and the transition was practically seamless. Indeed, not only did Glyde hold their own: they carried their Division 1B form into 1Aand were soon setting the pace in the higher section. After fourteen rounds of top-flight matches, Glyde finished joint-second on the 1A table. This meant they had to play Clan na Gael in a play-off. The Tallanstown men booked their place in the O'Donnell Cup decider with a dramatic 1-12 to 1-11 play-off defeat of Clan na Gael at Knockbridge on Saturday October 23. David Devaney landed the winning point deep into added time. The final took place at Clan na Gael Park on Sunday October 31. Glyde's opponents, Cooley Kickhams, had been the outstanding senior team in the county all year, and that form held true as the peninsula side claimed a 1-10 to 0-7 victory. While defeat was disappointing, it was a massive achievement for Glyde to qualify for the Cardinal O'Donnell final at the first time of asking. Rather than sitting back in awe of their opponents, Glyde's exciting young team opted to vigorously embrace the challenge of '04 - the result was pretty darn impressive. They came through Group C of the SFC with a 100% record and took mighty Mattock to a replay at the quarter-final stage of the county's premier competition before bowing out at Dunleer in early August. Meanwhile, in the league, Glyde were even more exceptional. In Division 1A, the Tallanstown crew spent 2004 close to the summit of the table, demonstrating a consistency bordering on uncanny. All year long, they looked like genuine Cardinal O'Donnell Cup contenders. And the really remarkable thing? This was achieved with a predominantly young side, playing an aesthetically pleasing brand of football. Good on the eye, Glyde are an easy team to like, regardless of whether you happen to be from Tallanstown or not. Former Galway minor and under 21 star David Devaney has been a mainstay of the set-up for the past three years. The Dundalk-based Garda also became a regular with the Louth seniors in 2004. Needless to say, the former Tuam Stars player is thoroughly enjoying life with Glyde: "When you think of up and coming teams in Louth, Glyde have to enter into the equation. Glyde have a very young team generally, with a lot of talented young lads coming through. There's an abundance of good footballers in the club. They're gaining in experience all the time and I'm sure the experience of 2004 will benefit everybody. Once this team becomes bigger and stronger physically, they'll have even more to offer. "At the moment, the lads can run around any team in the county; when they're stronger, they should be challenging for major honours. Most of this team still has a lot of football left in them, so the club's prospects are very promising." While Glyde certainly made their mark in the 2004 SFC, the quarter-final replay defeat to Mattock ultimately left them feeling glum. Reaching the quarter-final was a fine achievement in itself, but when you get so close to the last four, the sense of underachievement is unshakeable, as David confirms: "You have to be disappointed. "I know there's not that much expected of Glyde and we're still something of an unknown quantity around the county, but within the camp we were ambitious and felt we could get to a semi-final at least. We desperately wanted to reach that semi-final because against a big team like Cooley Kickhams, with all the expectations pointing to a comfortable Cooley win, who knows what might have happened? There'd have been no pressure on Glyde and we'd have been in an ideal position to pull off a surprise. So, yes, we're disappointed because we hoped to go further than the quarter-finals." Glyde sailed through to the knockout phase of the competition cradling an unblemished record. They produced a devastating second-half display against St Brides to open their Group C account with a 0-12 to 1-5 victory at Haggardstown on May 22. On June 19 at Louth village, Stabannon Parnells were pipped by 1-5 to 1-4, thanks largely to a first-minute John O'Brien penalty goal. This win assured the Tallanstown side of a quarter-final berth. Nonetheless, they closed their Group C account in fine style with a comprehensive 3-13 to 0-8 defeat of Dundalk Gaels on July 9. On the strength of those three results, would it be accurate to refer to Glyde Rangers as the form team of the group stages? "I don't think so," David concedes. "In fairness, you couldn't read too much into the three wins. I think we caught Brides on the hop, we only stumbled past Stabannon, and we beat a depleted Gaels side. So you couldn't take much from that. There was no point in us going around pretending we had beaten the top teams in the county, because that wasn't the case. "Having said that, all you can do is beat what's in front of you on the day and we achieved that, so we fancied our chances going in against Mattock. We had already beaten both them and Cooley [who would have provided semi-final opposition] in the league so, even though the league and championship are a different ball game, we at least knew we were capable of beating those teams. We were an unknown quantity and nobody knew what to expect from us, so we felt we were in with a shout. As it turned out, we were right because if you draw a game then you know you could just as easily have won it." The original quarter-final took place at Dunleer on Sunday July 25. With goals from John Daly and David Martin, and an equalising point from an injury-time Gerard Sheridan free, Glyde earned a replay on a scoreline of 2-7 to 1-10. Mattock's goal in the drawn game came from a Christy Grimes penalty and the same player again netted from the spot in the replay as the Collon men compiled a 2-10 to 1-8 winning margin. Glyde were the better team before the break and led by 1-4 to 0-4 at the short whistle (David Barry got the goal) but Mattock's greater experience told in the second period as Glyde's 2004 SFC aspirations were put to the sword. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Glyde's championship exit was that they didn't do themselves justice on the day. "In the first ten minutes of the second half, they got 1-3 without reply and we struggled to get back into the game after that. We did claw back within touching distance and seemed to be gathering some momentum but they got another goal while we were pushing forward and they then picked off points on the break. Mattock played well and the best team won on the day. We can have no complaints on that score. "But, yes, we were disappointed to lose without doing ourselves justice on the day. We really felt we were capable of doing something in the championship this year and it's always going to be disappointing to go out after putting in so much hard work. But it's a learning curve and hopefully we will put the experience to good use in future. This Glyde team has a great deal to offer. There's not much between any of the teams in the county and the senior championship is there to be won." Glyde's form in Division 1A proves the point. They made a mockery of the Division 1B status they held in '03 by beating all-comers in the top flight in '04, suggesting that the Tallanstown men are going to cement their status for many seasons to come. "At the end of the day, you want to be playing the best teams on a regular basis - and beating them," notes David. David isn't at all surprised by Glyde's wonderful performances in 2004. He points out: "It has been coming for a while. When I joined the team they were only after coming up from intermediate to senior and there was a lot of ambition. They've done well and it's still a very young side, so it could be another two or three years before the team is fully mature. Some of the lads are still in their teens - they could play for Glyde for another ten years or more. When this team gains more experience and becomes physically stronger, Glyde Rangers could become a real force to be reckoned with. "Next year, maybe we can get to a semi-final. I know it doesn't necessarily work like that, but one of our aims is to improve gradually each year. If we keep at it, we can win a senior championship." Two-thousand-and-five will be David Devaney's fourth season as a Glyde Rangers player. He has certainly proven a worthy addition to the Tallanstown club. Before leaving his native Galway, he played senior football with Tuam Stars. He represented Galway at minor level in 1994, '95 and '96, reaching the All-Ireland final in '94. He also had the distinction of winning a Connacht U21 medal under John O'Mahony in 1998 as well as a Hogan Cup with St Jarlath's four years earlier. Quite an impressive record, but the Galway man is still awaiting his first club championship medal and would dearly love to win it in the blue of Glyde. His career brought him to Louth. As a member of An Garda Siochana, he was first posted in Omeath and is now stationed in Dundalk. David also broke onto the Louth senior panel in 2004. It was a new-look Louth team and the Wee County had it all to do. After a terrible league campaign, Val Andrews' side improved gradually over the course of the year and their performance against David's native Galway in the qualifiers was thoroughly commendable. The Glyde clubman is confident that, with "JP and Stano" fully fit, the Wee County will continue to progress in 2005. Glyde Rangers will almost certainly do the same. Tweet

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