When the dust settled on Kiltimagh’s season in 2008 anyone who said that the east Mayo men would, in the not too distant future, be 60 minutes away from a day out in Croke Park would have been laughed at. But just 16 months on from Kiltimagh losing out to Mayo Gaels in an intermediate championship relegation play off that is where they are. It has been a strange couple of seasons for the men in blue an white, in 2007 they were only minutes away from making the break to the senior championship only to lose out to Ballintubber in the county final. The following year they could not buy a win, and a Sunday afternoon that August in Claremorris saw them drop down to the bottom tier of championship football in the county.
But last year they came back and did what they had to do, losing only two games in the league and seeing off the strong challenge from Ardnaree in the junior championship final by two points on a score line of 0-11 to 0-6. With the main objective for the year out of the way and intermediate status secured for 2010, it would have been easy the Kiltimagh men to rest on their laurels for the winter. But they followed up the county title with a win over Ballinammen by 2-14 to 0-3 in the Connacht semi-final. Then in November they came through a tough battle against Galway champions An Spidéal after extra time. After being pegged back with the last kick of the game in normal time, Kiltimagh came back strong again in extra time thanks to points from Keith Lydon and Adrian Frokan to seal the win.
And this weekend the Kiltimagh men will head to Pearse Park in Longford with only an hour of football between them and an All Ireland final in Croke Park. Preparations were not easy for Kiltimagh due to the cold snap that engulfed the county at the start of the year, but the management team of Mick Regan, Martin McCaffrey, and Brian Cunningham put the squad through their paces over the break. The planning was further compromised as Kiltimagh did not know who their opponents were until last weekend when Monaghan and Ulster champions Emyvale overcame Dunedin Shamrocks from Edinburgh in the All Ireland quarter final. The action gets under way in Pearse Park, Longford, on Sunday at 2.30pm.
