Inside Track: Clans can still rescue something from season

All is not lost for Clan na Gael. Their relegation to junior league football has sent shockwaves not only through their own catchment area, but the entire county.

But while it’s a longshot, the green-and-golds, the kingpins in Louth football not all that long ago, can still take something from the season. Not only that, but they can propel themselves to an even higher grade than this season.

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It would be accomplished by winning the intermediate championship, due to begin shortly. That’s a big ask, an improvement of gigantic proportions required. But a lesser effort could see them retain their place in the second-tier knock-out.

This is, literally, one of the ups and downs of football, how easily a club’s fortunes can change. Clans’ town rivals, Gaels, are due to play in the senior league next season having recently clinched promotion.

But it was less than a year ago that The Ramparts men had to avoid defeat in their last league match to avoid becoming involved in a league relegation battle, even though they had won the championship.

Another town team, Sean O’Mahony’s, are in a battle to avoid the drop from the senior league. They’re out this weekend in a must-win match with intermediate league runners-up, Mattock Rangers.

Clans were engaged in third-tier football before, playing in the Second Division (as today’s junior grade was known up until 1977). But in those years, in the early 1930s, senior and junior (now intermediate) teams also played out of Castletown.