In 2003, St Patricks were an irresistible force as they claimed their first ever Louth senior football championship. In 2004, the Lordship men recreated themselves as an immovable object and duly retained their crown. The Pats are here to stay! That's the resounding message the Lordship men sent out by winning the 2004 Louth SFC. In '03, St Patricks marked their 50th anniversary in style, beating St Marys after a replay in the county final to claim the Joe Ward Cup for the first time in the club's history. They went on to make it a famous double by also winning the Cardinal O'Donnell Cup, beating St Brides in the final. If this magnificent double was a significant success for the club, then the one that followed twelve months later was even more so. Retaining a championship is twice as difficult as winning it in the first place, especially for first-time winners. Indeed, instances of first-time winners successfully defending their title are extremely rare in gaelic games. However, in 2004, St Patricks boldly managed a feat that the likes of St Josephs and Mattock Rangers (as well as Armagh and Tyrone on the national stage) have failed to achieve in recent times. The confident manner in which the Pats completed back-to-back SFC wins was a joy to behold. The knack of winning the biggest prize in Wee County GAA has caught on quickly in the Green & White end of the peninsula. The fact that neighbours and fierce rivals Cooley Kickhams were beaten in the final probably adds to the enormity of the achievement. The rivalry between the peninsula clubs is infamous and by winning the first ever all-peninsula county final, the Pats have created a special piece of local history that can never be taken away from them. Mind you, the Pats wouldn't have been too fussy who provided the opposition at Pairc Clan Na Gael on Sunday September 19. It was a county final and the defending champions just wanted to retain the title that it had taken so long to win in the first place. Despite the hype that was generated by the media given the historical backdrop to the game, the colour of shirts worn by the opposition was incidental. There was a job to be done… We saw a different St Patricks in 2004. Unaccustomed to being the team that everybody else desperately wants to beat, they found themselves on the back foot at times. They may not have played the flowing football we all know they're capable of. They may not have taken the SFC by the scruff of the neck as they did a year previously, but still the Pats impressed in a new way. They were gritty. Resilient. They demonstrated a resolve and a determination not to relinquish their hard-earned crown. The challenge facing every other club in Louth was to wrestle the Joe Ward Cup away from the Pats. Nobody succeeded. The Lordship men refused to budge. The transformation from irresistible to immovable was completed with the minimum of fuss. St Patricks showed that they have become master craftsmen in the art of winning big games - that's what distinguishes great teams from good ones. If the 2003 semi-final meeting of the teams was anything to go by (on that occasion, Pats beat Cooley by 2-0 to 0-5), then the 2004 Louth SFC final was always going to be a tense, low-scoring affair with nothing given away lightly. Every score would be hard earned. And so it came to pass that, with the lowest winning tally in a county final in 70 years (since Glyde beat Wolfe Tones in 1934), St Patricks beat Cooley Kickhams by 0-7 to 0-6 in the 2004 Louth senior football championship final at Pairc Clan Na Gael on Sunday September 19. The score itself testifies to the fact that the St Patricks Class of 2004 was as much (if not more so) about a mean rearguard action as a slick attack. The winners reshuffled their hand before throw-in. Jim Holland - wearing the No.17 shirt - came in at midfield, with Paudie Mallon reverting to centre half back. Dessie Finnegan moved to the left wing and Donal O'Connor lost out. They played with the assistance of a strong breeze in the first half. The Pats led by six points to two at half time and only scored once in the second half. However, Ray Finnegan's fisted effort on 44 minutes was ultimately the difference between the teams as the Lordship men retained their crown in the face of a desperate late surge from the Kickhams that yielded four unanswered points but no equaliser. Finnegan bore down on goal at the end of the third quarter. Many expected the Louth attacker to go for goal, but the wing forward had other ideas. He calmly fisted the ball between the uprights to establish a five-point cushion that proved insurmountable. Joe Ward was staying in Lordship for twelve more months at least. The game almost slipped away from the Pats after captain Darren Kirwan was forced out of the fray with a broken rib. Cooley threw everything at them in the closing stages and had drawn within two points by the 52nd minutes thanks to points from Robert Kearney, Brian White and Sean O'Neill. Then White scored again… There were five minutes left and Cooley had both the momentum and wind advantage. Just when we thought that the Kickhams would end their 14-year barren spell, the Pats showed the mark of true champions, battening down the hatches and pinning Cooley into their own half for the game's closing act. Indeed, if anybody was going to score during those closing exchanges, the Pats looked more likely. Finnegan got in for a goal chance but was denied by Seamus Quigley. During a frantic last minute, Cooley did get forward but White's effort came off the outside of the post and that was it. The relief was palpable when the final whistle sounded. The finish may have been exciting but the reality was that St Patricks were the better team for three-quarters of the match. Some say it's the sweetest victory in the 51-year history of St Patricks GFC … it's difficult to argue with that notion. When injured captain Darren Kirwan accepted the Joe Ward Cup for another twelve months, it was a proud, proud moment for all Pats people. Though Cooley were hot favourites, the Pats played with confidence and conviction throughout. They adapted to the occasion much better than their neighbours. Playing positively with wind assistance, they opened their account through Karl White on six minutes. The centre forward also added the team's sixth point on the stroke of half time. Eamon Carroll pointed from frees in the eighth and eleventh minutes and his dangerous delivery yielded a first-half score for Paddy Keenan. Shane Hynes supplied the winners' other first-half score, his 20th-minute effort putting the Lordship men four points clear. The Pats almost got a goal in the twelfth minute but Cooley 'keeper Quigley was alive to Johnny Keenan's effort. Considering the extent of the wind, Pats' four-point interval cushion looked fragile, but they defended gallantly in the second half and were full value for their second successive county final victory. When Cooley tried to rally in the last ten minutes, Pats' defence sensed the danger and kept their swarming neighbours at bay. Tenacious corner back Owen Zamboglou epitomised everything that was good about the Pats on county final day. He chased down every ball and put in a sensational hour's work. The Pats have never lost a championship match with Zamboglou in the side and he was a worthy recipient of the 2004 Louth senior football championship final Man of the Match award. After the match, the defender was quick to point out that it was a gutsy team effort that got the Lordship men across the line: "There wasn't anyone who didn't perform and it's fantastic to be bringing the Joe Ward Cup back to Lordship again." Fact is, nobody ever really looked like wresting St Patricks' crown away from them. While some of their games may have been close, the Pats always managed to do enough and their 100% record in championship outings in 2004 speaks for itself. The semi-final, against a resurgent Clan na Gael, was equally difficult. Indeed, the scoreline was almost identical to the county final, except that at Dowdallshill on Sunday August 15, the Pats managed an extra point, 0-8 to 0-6. The enthusiastic Clans threw everything at the Pats, but the county champions refused to crumble under the pressure. Only four points were scored in the first half. A quarter of an hour elapsed before Eamon Carroll opened the scoring from a free. Paddy Keenan added a second point for the Pairc Eamoin outfit and Clans had their share of possession but registered seven wides before grabbing their first point in the 28th minute. A Johnny Keenan score made it 0-3 to 0-1 in favour of the champions at the break. Both sides continued to spurn decent opportunities upon the resumption and Pats 'keeper Sean Connor came to the rescue when saving Mark McGeown's penalty with his left foot. Clans had nonetheless drawn level within nine minutes of the re-start and the town side moved a point ahead with the game in its final quarter. However, St Patricks refused to panic and Karl White equalised from a sideline ball before Shane Finnegan made it 0-5 to 0-4. Clans got the next two points to go back in front but Pats booked their final place with three unanswered points. Paddy Keenan struck the leveller and the winners dominated injury time - all seven minutes of it. When White was dragged to the ground, referee Paddy Matthews awarded a penalty, which Eamon Carroll wisely chipped over the bar. Carroll's long delivery into the goalmouth then bounded over the bar to seal a scrappy victory for the peninsula team. The big game specialists were back in another final. O'Connells provided the quarter-final opposition at St Brigid's Park (definitely a favourite haunt of St Patricks) on July 16 and the senior newcomers gave the champions a real run for their money. The Kilsaran/Castlebellingham outfit had a wonderful year and were within one point of the Lordship men with only two minutes of normal time remaining. But the Pats' grittiness was something to behold, even if their football wasn't quite of the flowing variety this particular day. Indeed, it could have been a different game entirely had not two goalscoring efforts from the challengers rebounded unluckily off the woodwork, but this cannot detract from the fact that St Patricks outscored their opponents by seven points in the end. The champions' class shone through before the whistle sounded and the fact that all but one point of their tally came from open play is an indicator of their ability to pick off scores when the going gets tough. Pats took their opportunities when they presented themselves and nine different peninsula men got on the scoresheet, Ray Finnegan firing 1-1 while Shane Hynes and Paddy Keenan each chipped over three points. With two minutes left, they held a precarious one-point advantage and an upset appeared to be on the cards. But this is where St Patricks demonstrated the mark of champions: Hynes' third point from play edged them two ahead on the stroke of full time. Finnegan hit the net three minutes into added time and Donal O'Connor's point a minute later closed the scoring. St Patricks were in Group A of the 2004 SFC. They topped the group with a 100% record, following victories over Clan na Gael, Naomh Mairtin and Roche Emmets. The competition opener, against Clans at Dowdallshill on May 20, was one of the highest-scoring games of the year. Pats were on course for a comfortable victory with ten minutes left, leading by nine points, 2-11 to 0-8. But the Dundalk men rallied with 2-1 inside five minutes to put an entirely different complexion on the contest. Colin Goss repelled everything the Clans threw at him in the dying stages and the Pats received some respite when Damien Connor pointed to put them a goal ahead. When Seamus O'Hanlon's late free flew inches over the bar, the Pats had crossed the winning line, 2-12 to 2-10. Despite their late slip, St Patricks had looked the part for three-quarters of an hour and their resolution in the closing minutes was a taste of things to come. Another narrow victory followed, at the expense of Naomh Mairtin at Castlebellingham nine days later. Ray Finnegan got the champs off to the perfect start when blasting to the net at the end of a 50-yard run after only three minutes, but it was a slog from there to the finishing post. Many of the Pats players were off song on the day, but they still ground out a result, 1-7 to 1-6. St Patricks had already qualified for the knockout stage when they took on Roche Emmets, who were out of the running. A 2-13 to 0-7 win at the 'Hill on June 13 saw them progress to the quarter-finals as group winners. Paddy Keenan scored four points in the group closer, while the goals arrived courtesy of Karl White in the first half and substitute Diarmuid Murphy at the start of the fourth quarter. St Patricks' participation in the Leinster club championship proved a major disappointment. The Louth champions travelled to Newbridge on Saturday October 23 and lost to Kildare champions Allenwood, 0-11 to 0-6. Raymond Finnegan had gone to Australia, while neither Darren Kirwan nor Jim Holland were able to start and the Pats finished the game with 13 men. A week later, Paddy Keenan represented Leinster in the Railway Cup against Munster at Portlaoise. All in all, it was a real squad effort from the Pats in 2004. At times they were stretched and struggled to find their true form but everybody contributed handsomely as the county champions showcased their strength in depth. They were solid at the back, with full back Colin Goss and corner back Owen Zamboglou particularly to the fore, and energetic in the midfield sector, where Paddy Keenan once more shone as one of the brightest jewels in Louth football right now. Up front, there were multiple threats. Scores came from everywhere - Finnegan, White, Connor, Devane, Keenan, the under-rated Carroll, Kirwan, Hynes, O'Connor. There was no dislodging them… St Patricks, 2004 Louth senior football champions: Sean Connor; Damien White, Colin Goss, Owen Zamboglou; Johnny Holland, Paudie Mallon, Dessie Finnegan; Jim Holland, Paddy Keenan (0-1); Eamon Carroll (0-2), Karl White (0-2), Ray Finnegan (0-1); Darren Kirwan, Shane Hynes (0-1), Johnny Keenan. Subs: Padraig Devane, Donal O'Connor, Damien Connor Tweet

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