A club's aim at the start of any year is to win some silverware. The Geevagh club in Sligo managed that feat on two fronts, in the Sligo Ladies senior football championship, while their male counterparts won the IFC and sponsor of the ladies team, Paddy and Maria Conlon spoke to Hogan Stand about the achievements that club made in 2006. Not only have the club been successful on the pitch, but ongoing work being carried out by Paddy Conlon Construction has seen a transformation in their playing grounds. The new development in Geevagh where a playing pitch, training area and walkway are being constructed was as expected opened as planned in 2006. Work on new dressingrooms, fitness room and social centre have been ongoing as part of the development started by the Geevagh Community Resource Group. The Group were awarded €96,000 last year as part of a grant from the National lottery, while €42,000 was raised by the group themselves a lottery syndicate and sponsored cycle. Another €200,000 was received this year from the National lottery, while Clar allocated €40,000 to the project and this funding has aided the development of the dressingrooms. "The club has done great work in recent years and it certainly has been an improvement, especially for the kids, who have more room to train now," said Maria. Having been involved with the ladies section of the club for many years, Paddy and Maria were delight to see the club win the Sligo senior ladies football championship. "It was a great achievement for the club. There is a very small catchment area to choose from with a radius of about two mile, so that shows you the small numbers the club has to deal with. "The club looks after teams from under-8 right up to adult in both codes and this takes a great deal of time and effort. Those involved deserve great credit for their efforts," added Maria. The club pride themselves on having such a proud tradition in Ladies football and their crowning moment before this year's success in the senior championship came when young Geevagh player Stephanie O'Reilly was awarded a GAA All Stars title of Connacht Young Ladies Footballer of the Year in its first year of operation in 2003. Eighteen-year-old Stephanie plays in the forwards and has accumulated an impressive list of titles and has played on a number of junior and senior teams since she began playing football in her local National School under the guidance of her principal, former GAA player John Hughes. Following on from the success of the Sligo ladies junior side in winning the All-Ireland title, it was the turn of the Geevagh ladies senior side to lift some silverware. After trailing throughout the entire match, Geevagh put forth a display of true determination and courage in the dying minutes to take the lead and win their first senior ladies title. With just five minutes left in the encounter at Kilcoyne Park, Tubbercurry, Geevagh were trailing by three points, but Louise Smith lifted their spirits with a point before Nicola Sweeney scored a 61st minute goal to secure the lead. Elaine O'Reilly then dashed the hopes of St Nathy's with a point with the final kick of the match to leave two points between the sides, 3-8 to 1-12. The game began with quite a bang, as St Nathy's opened the scoring with a first-minute goal from Louise O'Donnell, before Etna Flanagan sent a point over the bar to send them further into the lead. This seemed to wake Geevagh up, as they responded with a goal of their own when Louise Smith latched onto a Lorraine Mulvaney pass and shot from distance - straight into the top right-hand corner of the net. Elaine O'Reilly then levelled the scores, but this comfort was short-lived as St Nathy's went on a scoring spree, putting over six unanswered points, the last going over the bar with 22 minutes gone on the clock. O'Reilly again sent over a point for Geevagh, but it was cancelled out by an Ailish McHugh's point for St Nathy's just two minutes later. The two sides battled for the final minutes of the first half, but neither could get another score and St Nathy's went into the half time break leading by six points (1-8 to 1-2). The second-half began as the first ended, with both sides exchanging points, and Geevagh's Elaine O'Reilly pointed before her team-mate, Laura McDonagh, looped a long-distance shot over the goalkeeper into the St Nathy's net to send them right back into the game. With a brilliant move up the pitch in injury time, Bernice Byrne sent possession towards Nicola Sweeney in the St Nathy's goalmouth. Sweeney caught the ball and tucked it into the St Nathy's net, as the Geevagh support erupted with cheers. Although they were ahead, Geevagh didn't stop attacking and Elaine O'Reilly put over the last point of the match with the final kick, and as the referee blew for full-time, Geevagh were crowned the Sligo Ladies Football Senior Championship winners for the very first time. "To win the senior championship was a great achievement for all the girls and one that will live long in the memories of everyone involved with the club." The celebrations in the club were not confined to just the ladies team as the intermediate footballers lifted the title after a hard fought 0-17 to 1-10 win over St Patrick's to return to the senior ranks for 2007. A truly amazing year for the rural club and one that will go down as possibly their most historic. Nonetheless, they will look to build on their success in future campaigns. Paddy Conlon Construction T/A Anglewest Ltd was established in 1995 and currently employs 13 full time staff, while a large amount of sub-contractors are also employed by the firm. The building contractor has work ongoing at the Geevagh club house, while Paddy is also building eight houses of his own in the village. The competition is high in the industry and Paddy's firm is experienced in all type of farmwork and is busy constructing rafts for new houses and slated tanks for the farming sector. Paddy is also a member of Homebond and CIF. Tweet

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