Senior/Junior Leagues 1999

Finally Fenagh St. Caillins captured a Senior Title after many disappointments over the past number of years. The hoodoo has been broken and hopefully we will now follow in the footsteps of both Melvin Gaels and Glencar/Manorhamilton, both of whom won the Senior League title before taking the Championship.

In a poor game Fenagh St. Caillins where the stronger of the two teams showing a greater determination and hunger than the Carrick men. Fenagh St. Caillins were 5 points up at half-time with the score standing at 1-6 to 0-4. The last 15 minutes were a nervous time for Fenagh St. Caillins as St. Marys fought back to within a one point margin with 9 minutes to go. It was all St. Marys at this stage and it seemed as if they would steal it from Fenagh. However Fenagh responded immediately, following a well worked move out of defence, when Dessie Bohan shot for goal to the elation of the team and supporters. This seemed to kill of the St. Marys comeback and the game finished following a Brendan Flynn point to leave Fenagh St. Caillins League Champions on a scoreline of 2-9 to 1-8.

A day to be remembered by all Fenagh people and a proud moment as captain Raymond Greenan received the cup. A drought of 67 years has been ended with our last title being won in 1932 when Fenagh won the Senior Championship.

Fenagh St. Caillins advance to the final of the 1999 Masonite Senior League after defeating Gortletteragh by 8 points on Saturday the 19th February.

Fenagh St. Caillins never looked in any doubt of winning this one as they totally outplayed an uncharacteristically lacklustre Gortletteragh team. The St. Caillins outfit played some lovely football throughout the game with some very fluid passing play. The defence were as solid as ever and the forward line showed marked improvement in their ability to take their chances from their last game against Glencar/Manor. Patrick Guckian, who scored 1-4 was a particular thorn in Gortetteraghs side and Ciaran Duignan showed signs of regaining his old form.

Fenagh St. Caillins will now have to play either Melvin Gaels or St. Marys, (that game was postponed at the weekend and should be decided next weekend) in the final. We now have a strong chance of capturing some silverware from the 1999 season and all your support would be greatly appreciated. The last time Fenagh contested the League Final was in 1987 when we lost out to Aughawillan. We have only one Senior League title and that was way back in 1931.

After some heavy rain over the weekend the venue for the match was changed from the Bee Park to Fenagh. The match was played on a very rain soaked surface making ball handling extremely difficult, a fact which was very clear throughout the course of the game, and which the Fenagh St. Caillins forward line used to their advantage particularly by Patrick Guckian.

The game was a drab affair for the first 30 minutes with Glencar/Manor making more use of their possession with some fine points. The first half scoreline was 6 points to 3 points in favour of Glencar/Manor. It livened up 10 minutes into the second half when Fenagh St. Caillins finally obtained a reward for all their possession when Patrick Guckian finished off a fine move to send the ball home for a goal. This left Fenagh 1 point in front and from there on it was nip and tuck with Glencar/Manor drawing level on two occasions. The game was finished as a contest 1 minute into injury time with an opportunistic goal by Enda McKiernan and a point by Ciaran Duignan 1 minute later to leave Fenagh St. Caillins deserving winners by 4 points.

A big improvement from the St. Caillins outfit. Glenfarne made a fight of it in the first half and at the break the score was 1-2 to 0-3 in favour of St. Caillins.

St. Caillins upped the tempo in the second half and ended the game convincing winners by a margin of 10 points. Glenfarne bow out of the Senior ranks in what has been a year of mixed fortunes for the club.