With four league fixtures left to play and still an outside chance of automatic promotion the team entertained Cookstown on Sunday 9th October and went down 1-12 to 0-10. After this game the management team of Gerard Houlahan and James Burns parted company with the club by mutual consent and Barry McElduff stepped into the breach for the match against Eglish in Round 20 which saw our tenth win of the season courtesy of a 1-10 to 1-03 victory. After the Eglish game a new management team of John O’Brien and Barry McElduff was appointed for the remainder of the 2005 season and for the forthcoming year. At this point I would like to firstly thank the players for the effort and commitment they gave all year. I would also like to thank Gerard Houlahan and James Burns for the contribution they made during the course of the season and also John and Barry for stepping into the breach in the latter part of the season. Physio Brigid Keenan also deserves special mention for her sterling efforts during the course of the year. In rounding off with the senior team I would like to wish them all the best in their bid for promotion via the final play off route. The Reserve team, underage the management of Sean Donaghy and Paddy Fox, finished the season on 23 points having won 10, lost 9 and drawn 3 of their games. In the championship a severely under strength side was defeated 1-9 to 0-15 by Edendork after extra time. The management team of Sean and Paddy and this group of players deserve a word of thanks for their efforts during the year as the stop start nature of the fixtures made it extremely difficult to gain any momentum during the season, but all concerned battled against this and gave a good account of themselves. Moving to underage football the Minor team, under the guidance of Conor Harte and Ronan Ward, competed in Grade 1. The team played seven league games, drew two and was defeated in five. In the championship played on Wednesday 4th May the lads fell to eventual winners Errigal Ciarán on a scoreline of 0-2 to 1-15. The season did not materialise as all would have hoped but hopefully in the coming years we will see some of these players on our senior team with a little more application. The U-16 team, under the guidance of Stephen McCullagh and Tom O’Brien, competed in Grade 2. They won seven of their league games thus qualifying for the league quarter finals where they were drawn to play Eglish. After defeating Eglish by a point they were made to replay the fixture due to a mistake made by the referee. This proved very costly as Eglish won the refixed match on a scoreline of 3-3 to 2-7 on Sunday 2nd October. In the championship the side defeated Urney in the first Round but succumbed to the challenge of eventual winners Gortin on a scoreline of 3-13 to 2-9. The team showed great promise in the early part of the season and from this we can be hopeful that this group of players can make a greater impact at minor level in two years time. The club hosted and also took part in the Óg sport competition (U-15) on Wednesday 8th June. The side played three games and beat Glenelly before going down to the challenges of Omagh and Gortin and did not qualify for the final stages.
