The 2006 season may not have lived up to expectation after out Senior team came so close to promotion in 2005 but there were a number of positive points, which can be drawn from it. There were encouraging signs at underage level for the club as well as the on-going work at the new field. The club has also become more involved with the local Primary school, which bodes well for the future. The Senior team with clubmen John O'Brien and Barry McElduff in charge, finished the season in a mid table position in Division 1B of the All County Football League on 22 points which meant that they were not involved in any play offs at the end of the season. Competitive football for the side began on Sunday 12th February with a home fixture against Tyholland (Monaghan) in the Ulster league competition, which the club entered for the first time this year. This resulted in a 1-9 to 1-7 victory. In the following four games in this pre season competition, the team recorded one more victory over Cookstown and three defeats at home to Silverbridge (Armagh) and away games against Drumgoon (Cavan) and Kinawley (Fermanagh). This competition proved to be very worthwhile as the management tried out a number of new players and it was more competitive than meaningless challenge games. Hopes were high at the start of the year that the team could gain promotion to Division 1A after coming so close in 2005. The League campaign began on Saturday 1st April with a home victory over Moortown by the minimum margin 0-8 to 0-7. This was followed up with a very impressive 1-13 to 2-7 win away to Edendork in Round 2. Our first defeat of the season came at the hands of Gortin 1-10 to 2-13 in the home fixture played on Thursday 20th April. But the team quickly made amends for this home defeat by recording a dramatic 3-6 to 2-10 win over Trillick in Donnelly Park on Sunday 30th April. This victory set us up well for the Championship meeting with Donaghmore, which was scheduled to be the side’s next match. In this game played at Healy Park Omagh on Friday 5th May the team were defeated 2-8 to 2-11 but put up a very creditable performance against the 2006 league finalists and only fell behind mid way through the second half. So it was back to league action with Rounds 5 and 6 scheduled for the following weekend. First up on Friday 12th May Galbally were the opposition and this resulted in a 0-16 to 1-11 victory in a cracking game of football. In Round 6 Clan Na Gael were the visitors to Pairc an Locha and managed to come away with all two points on a scoreline of 0-12 to 1-14. Unfortunately this was followed up with another defeat away to Pomeroy 2-13 to 2-10. But the team got back to winning ways in Round 8 with a 0-10 to 0-5 home win over Moy on Sunday 21st May. Our winning ways continued in Round 9 with an impressive 2-11 to 0-8 victory over eventual second place finishers Killeeshil.
