It's been a tremendous year for St. Nicholas whose adult Intermediate team secured promotion for the club to Division 2A of the football league. This affords the 'Nicks', as they're affectionately known, two opportunities in 2006 of making it up to senior football for what would be the first time in their history. Promotion itself was a fine achievement for a club who have to compete more keenly than most with other sports for playing talent in their home base. Furthermore the club is also disadvantaged in that the greater part of their natural hinterland, on the southwest of Drogheda, lies in neighbouring county Meath. They're now one of only two clubs south of the river, along with the Wolfe Tones whom they combine with at underage level in the various county competitions. One of the youngest clubs in the county hope some day they'll emulate the achievements of the now defunct Mhuires at senior level and fly the flag for the 'far side' of town as it's known locally. Manager John Walsh saw his charges make the perfect start with six straight wins in the league between February and May. This impressive start sent out a clear message to other clubs in the division that the Nicks were on the march in search of promotion. Their fine run began with a hard earned single point victory over St. Fechins on the opening day of the campaign. Almost seven weeks elapsed before they took to the field again in early April when they had four points to spare over Glen Emmetts. In the weeks that followed; St. Mochtas, the O' Raghallaighs, Lannleire, and the Westerns were all put to the sword as the Rathmullen men maintained their one hundred percent record to top the table at the half way point. The start of the championship coincided with a surprising dip in form as the pace setters in the league were surprisingly beaten in their opening group encounter in early June at the GAA Grounds in Drogheda. A ding-dong encounter with St. Fechins, whom they had already accounted for in the league, saw the Termonfeckin men turn the tables to hang on for a single point victory. A draw with Dundalk Gaels on the first evening of July in their second outing at the Grove in Castlebellingham, offered hope of better things to come. However, this wasn't the case a week later when they slumped to a three-point defeat at the hands of eventual championship winners, the Geraldines. This loss signalled an end to their championship aspirations as attention switched to the league, which now offered the most likely prospect of success for 2005. Incredibly, the clubs poor showing in the knockout competition carried on into the next couple of league matches when they lost on both occasions. St. Fechins repeated their championship success, on this occasion more comfortably by four points. Next up came Glen Emetts who surprised the league leaders with a 2-7 to 0-11 win, which for the first time all year cast real doubt on the Nicks promotion credentials Almost two months elapsed before league action re-commenced in mid-autumn. Ironically the break proved beneficial as they got back to winning ways when seeing off St. Mochtas by two points in a tense battle in early October. Further victories followed over fellow promotion contenders the O' Raghallaighs, who eventually accompanied the Nicks up to the top intermediate division. This was then followed by a comfortable enough second win of the season over Lannleire which saw the Nicks seal promotion. With the top two in the Division finishing level on points they met in a play off match to decide who finished as champions. At the third time of asking the O'Raghallaighs, who had been seen off twice previously, disappointingly from a St Nicholas perspective, reversed the earlier results to finish top of the pile. Nevertheless, the primary aim at the start of the season had been achieved as the upper echelons of Intermediate football beckoned. The club were represented through the year at senior county level by one of their most talented players, Andrew Tinley. Eamonn Mc Eneaney's appointment as Louth boss has seen Tinley joined by Darren Thornton, a second Nicks representative, in the new managers initial squad. Thornton, a young full back, is regarded highly and is widely tipped to wear the county jersey sooner rather than later. St. Nicholas and close neighbours Wolfe Tones combine at underage level and this association produced the goods in several age categories over the summer months. The under 14's landed the league title in their particular grade and were looked after from the Nicks side by Philip Kirwan and Lee Connolly. A year on the 15's were victorious in the league/championship combined when getting the better of a more fancied Geraldines side. Some of the Rathmullen clubs players to shine throughout a most successful campaign were; Craig Donnelly, Niall Branigan, Derek Kierans and Ciaran Branigan. With two astute mentors to guide them in the guise of Hugh Downey and Jimmy Mc Quillan, it's little wonder the combination were crowned champions. Further glory was almost achieved at under 16 level where Paul Cummins and Ollie Henry worked with their colleagues in the Tones to produce yet another winning combination. However, in the final the Nicks / Tones combination were undone by an all-conquering Geraldines fifteen. Several members of this side are expected to make an impact at minor level with Richard Kelly, Jason O' Boyle and Brendan Caffrey all set for bright futures in the game. It was another busy tear in terms of the ongoing development of their home, Jimmy Pentony Park. The playing surface had been problematic throughout the previous year, outside of the main summer months. Many fixtures were lost due to impossible underfoot conditions, a situation that could no longer prevail. A complete refurbishment of the pitch was undertaken, which has already yielded outstanding results as 2005 draws to a close and the weather deteriorates. Barring the most extreme conditions, the park is now available and in playing order virtually year round. New boundary walls and pathways have been completed which has added significantly to the appearance of the place. Work has been ongoing on a new training area in addition to the main playing pitch. Down the road the club intend to construct a new clubhouse, which will include dressing rooms, meeting rooms and a range of ancillary facilities. But for the moment both on and off the park St. Nicholas are progressing nicely. Our year It has been a very successful year for St Nicholas GFC both on the pitch and off. After playing all adult fixtures in the Wolfe Tones field, in 2004 because of the re-surfacing of our own field St Nicholas GFC were really looking forward to the 2005 season. Although the management team stepped down after five years in charge a great debt is owed to Hugh Downey and Jim McQuillan who guided the club through five turbulent years. It starting off with relegation but turned a corner in landing the league title in 2002 and gaining intermediate status for the club while also consolidating the clubs intermediate status for the next two seasons. John Walsh, a former player, took over at the helm and guided the team to promotion to Div 2A. John and his assistant John Heeney, who had not been part of the club for a couple of years, became very frustrated at the format in which games were fixed and could not understand why there was so much time between matches. Continuity of performances was hard to maintain but to their credit they had a very successful year, although the championship is one we would want to forget. At underage level we amalgamated with the Wolfe Tones at U14, U15, U16, minor and this was a great success. We won the U14 A League, U15 competition and contested both finals at U16 and all the the top grade we also contested a league U18 final. The development off the field was another plus for the club and a great thanks must go to unsung heroes who in every club do mountains of work and shy away when the praise is getting dished out. John Caffrey, Felix Hackett, Victor Hackett, Fintan McCarthy, Gerry McKeown, Mary Reynolds the club would not function without the valuable contribution from each and every one of you. We are about to erect floodlights for our new training field and as we are now only 1 division away from the Holy Grial of senior football. We are looking forward to the 2006 season and hopefully we can consolidate 2A status and over the next couple of years and build up the squad to make the push up to senior. Courtesy of St. Nicholas GAC Tweet

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