MARCUS CAVAROLI
DANNY Gartland has had many great days since forming Newfoundwell in 2011, but Sunday afternoon in Bellurgan was his finest yet as his club captured the NEFL Premier Division title for the first time.
The champagne corks eventually started popping at the final whistle just after 1pm, but the Drogheda club weren’t ever going to bottle it at this stage of the season and have achieved the league’s biggest prize without being beaten.
Quite a feat - but they aren’t about to rest on their laurels and there’s still a possible treble to be won, both for the first team and the reserves.
‘It’s down to all the hard work and commitment off lads and sitting in at weekends,’ Gartland began. ‘There was one lad who went to a wedding three weeks ago and he had to sit with a mineral for the day.
‘In the last six games we’ve scored 22 or 23 goals and only conceded one which is unbelievable at this level. We were away in Duleek, Ardee and Bellurgan - all fighting for their lives - and to score all those goals and not concede shows the winning mentality that’s in the group.
‘We worked hard all year, from Little Wembley in the first week of July to now and we’ll continue to work hard to get the Tullys Cup and Kilmessan Shield across the line and make this a great season.
‘I’ve tried to get this across the line the last two years and it was a kick in the teeth finishing second, but we learned from it and that’s what drove us on.
‘And Paul [Crowley] here, with his professional approach, the tempo at training went up a little bit and there was more organisation in the dressing-room and that got it across the line.
‘We’re the second Drogheda team to win it, but we won it the right way because we were undefeated all year. We go home tonight as champions.’
Newfoundwell have shown great resolve to continue their march to the title, given the massive disappointment of being thrown out of the FAI Junior Cup for fielding an ineligible player in their quarter-final victory over Ayrfield. Their hopes of going all the way in the Leinster Junior competition were subsequently dashed too, with defeat at the same stage in that competition.
‘It was hard to take, the FAI, but this club is only going since 2011, so we’ll learn from it,’ Gartland insisted. ‘There was a little mistake on behalf of a player and the secretary, and the club has to take a bit of responsibility for not checking - it’s only a phone call to Leinster.
‘It’s only a small club and to go to the last eight of the FAI was a big achievement, but we were a bit sick because we knew we could have gone the whole way.’
For joint manager Crowley, the man who in 2012 lifted the EA Sports Cup as captain of Drogheda United who also finished second in the league, there was relief that the job has finally been accomplished.
‘We’ve been hearing the last two weeks - we’ve been sick of it, to be honest - that’s it’s over the line, but we’d pressure on us. We’d 15 points to get, otherwise you were opening the door for Trim.
‘The cups were occupying us and I think people thought we’d collapse after going out of those competitions, but we just kept going.
‘We said at the start of the season that everyone would play their part if lads bought into what we want to do, and everybody did.
‘They’re excellent. We tried to develop lads that we brought into the club this year - Ronan Brown in goal, Ryan Connor - and we worked really hard in the off season to get this right. It didn’t start just with lads coming up here to train - we met players after last season finished and we tried to tell them we were onto something this year.
‘We knew it needed a freshening up, but it wasn’t a clear-out. It was so important we kept the lads that have done so well in this club with Danny.’
Crowley tried to get across the winning mentality that served Drogheda United well in 2012, and the squad responded.
‘They don’t know what it’s like to lose a game and it’s such a good habit. I’ve been involved in dressing-rooms over the years and in the 2012 team I was in we’d hadn’t got the best squad in the league, we had the lowest budget, but we had a hunger, the winning mentality was massive and you hate losing.
‘That’s what happened this year and it’s really going to push us on now. We’ve the Kilmessan Shield Final to come and the Tully Cup is still there. We’ll park them for the week and enjoy today and take it from there.’
Gartland pointed out the importance of the new faces in securing the league title this year.
‘There was nearly too much togetherness [in previous seasons]. There weren’t demanding enough off each other because there were too many friends. This year we brought lads in from the other side of town and they drove them on. If you were out on the beer, they were willing to hang you out to dry.
‘Thank you to John Kerr, Ray Reid and Rory Everitt and all them for the hard work behind the scenes,’ he said. ‘They helped keep the money going for bus journeys, food and all that, especially when we were in Cork twice this year and Evergreen, and big thanks to Larry McQuillan for taking photos for the club and coming on trips with us.
‘Nolans Bar I’d like to thank as well.’ AFTER finishing as runners-up in the two previous seasons, Newfoundwell were finally crowned NEFL Premier Division champions on Sunday afternoon - and they achieved the Holy Grail in great style at Flynn Park.
The Drogheda side’s 4-0 away victory at OMP in mid-week, followed by Trim Celtic’s defeat on Friday night, left the ‘Well needing only a point against Bellurgan to clinch the title with two games to spare, and the outcome was not in doubt from an early stage.
Bellurgan, the one-time kingpins in this league, had nothingg but pride to play for and that wasas never going to be enough againstst hungrier opposition whose onlyly defeat this season came in thehe Leinster Junior Cup quarter-finals.s.
Ian Devine curled a free kickk narrowly wide in the opening moments and a superb Adam O’Connor cross from the corner flag struck the crossbar, with Bellurgan keeper Robert Arthurr scrambling. so it was no surprisese when the deadlock was brokenen after 12 minutes.
Anto Burke (pictured right)t) showed a typical poacher’s instinct nst to deflect a loose ball pastnst Arthur at his near post after the home side failed to clear from a on the right flank and sent a superb low diagonal ball to the