St. Brigid's stay in the senior hurling championship proved to be shortlived with a play-off defeat to Brownstown resulting in relegation. Despite last season's disappointment, team captain Pat Hayes is confident that the saffrons can make their presence felt in this year's intermediate championship. After just one year in the top flight, St. Brigid's returned to the intermediate grade following a relegation play-off defeat to Brownstown at St. Loman's on July 13 last. Having caused a massive upset in beating St. Oliver Plunkett's in the 2000 intermediate championship final, St. Brigid's found the going extremely tough in last year's senior championship and a failure to win any games meant that they made an instant return to the 'middle' grade. While the Dalystown outfit were never likely to challenge for senior championship honours, they had expected to consolidate their position as a senior club. Team captain Pat Hayes admits to feeling bitterly disappointed with the way the year panned out. "We had hoped to do a lot better," he says. "We never expected to win the championship but I felt we could have sneaked a quarter-final or semi-final place. The draw was favourable and we had every reason to believe that we could do well. But unfortunately things didn't work out and it was very disappointing to go straight back down to intermediate." Under the management of Rom Deegan, St. Brigid's met Cullion in their opening game of the championship at Cusack Park on May 27. Many hurling pundits were of the opinion that the losers were destined for the relegation play-off. So it proved, but who could have predicted the winners going all the way to the county final? St. Brigid's were facing an uphill battle at half-time when they trailed by 0-3 to 1-6. Jay Faulkner and Pat Hayes scored a couple of quick points on the restart but Cullion responded with a series of scores to regain control. St. Brigid's were not finished, however, and a goal from Niall Seery had them back in contention. But Cullion weathered the storm with late points from Ollie Fay, Rodney Martin and Colin Whyte giving them a 1-16 to 1-9 win. In hindsight, that was St. Brigid's best performance in the group stages. On June 17, they suffered a crushing 0-7 to 5-21 defeat to reigning champions Lough Lene Gaels. Twelve days later, they went down to Raharney on a 1-5 to 4-12 scoreline. St. Brigid's will want to forget the games against Lough Lene Gaels and Raharney in a hurry. Against the Gaels, they found themselves 0-3 to 2-13 in arrears at the interval. They were only five points adrift at half-time in the game against Raharney (1-4 to 2-6), but fell away badly in the second half. Those three defeats meant that St. Brigid's went into a relegation play-off against Brownstown. Played at St. Loman's, the game looked like going Brownstown's way until St. Brigid's staged a spirited revival at the start of the second half. But Brownstown regained the upperhand in the closing stages to run out 1-12 to 1-6 winners. The teams were level on 0-2 each after 10 minutes but an Eamon Murphy goal turned the tide in Brownstown's favour and they took a 1-7 to 0-4 lead into the break. But St. Brigid's made an excellent start to the second half with a Hayes point being followed by a goal from Michael Carley. Carley's goal left just two points between the sides but St. Brigid's were unable to build on that and a late burst of Brownstown scores sent them tumbling back to the intermediate grade. Further disappointment followed for St. Brigid's later in the year when they met Crookedwood in the delayed 2000 Intermediate Cup final. Despite Pat Hayes' 1-1 in the opening four minutes, St. Brigid's never got going and they trailed by 1-3 to 3-10 at the interval. Hayes gave the saffrons a glimmer of hope when he scored two goals in quick succession at the start of the second half but Crookedwood remained composed and were 4-13 to 3-3 in front at the final whistle. St. Brigid's afternoon was summed up when Hayes had a penalty saved in the closing minutes. Looking in from the outside, it would appear that it will take St. Brigid's some time to recover from last year's disappointments. But Hayes, who hails from Kilmore Quay in Co. Wexford, is upbeat about the future, pointing out that there is an abundance of young talent available to the club. "I think we are capable of bouncing back. We put in a good effort last year but maybe we were too inexperienced for senior hurling. Hopefully, the younger players will have learned from the experience because they have great talent. "The likes of Sean Gallagher and Niall Seery have done trojan work with the underage teams and I'm sure we'll reap the benefits at adult level over the next few years." St. Brigid's have quite a good record at underage level in recent years and last October, the club contested the under 12 'B' championship final against Delvin at Loughegar. Following an absorbing tussle, however, St. Brigid's lost out on a 2-5 to 2-6 scoreline. Hayes, who transferred to St. Brigid's in 1993, accepts that they will not be among the favourites for this year's intermediate championship. That said, he's not ruling out their chances. "Nobody will be giving us much hope after last year but if we can get through the knock-out stages, anything is possible. Rom Deegan is staying on as trainer and if any one is capable of getting the best out of us, it's him," he concludes. The St. Brigid's team which reached the under 12 'B' hurling championship final was: James Leogue; James Keegan, Darren Quinn (0-4), Christopher Gallagher; Brian Slevin, Eanna Gallagher, Damien Moran; Brendan Brady (1-0), Ger Keegan; Daniel Crombie, Christopher Coyne (1-0), Francis Nally (0-1); Kevin Loughrey, Fechin Gavn, Niall Brady. Subs: Kevin Morgan, Brendan Keegan, Brian Fitzpatrick, Cathal Coyne, Conor Slevin, Ciara Deegan, Ben Gavin, Stephen Quinn, Sean Deegan. Tweet

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