Photographs: Bert Trowlen
Ladies NFL
Antrim 0-06-0-08 Louth
By Kevin Herron at Rathmore
Antrim ladies chances of reaching the league semi-final suffered a fresh setback on Sunday afternoon as Louth left Rathmore victorious on a scoreline of 0-08-0-06.
Both sides squandered numerous chances throughout the sixty plus minutes – but it was Louth who were just the more clinical as the wee county secured their place in the last four play-offs.
Without a competitive fixture in four weeks – the Saffrons were hoping to recover from their defeat to Wicklow last time out against a Louth side that were full of confidence, following a win over Limerick.
The first ten minutes at the South Belfast venue was one to forget as the two sides lacked composure and confidence in front of goal with six wides between them before the opening score arrived through Louth midfielder Sinead Woods after 12 minutes.
It took the hosts almost 18 minutes before the opening score arrived – courtesy of a converted Eimear Gallagher free and six minutes later Antrim edged ahead as Aine Devlin popped the ball over the bar, having watched three previous efforts from team mates drift wide.
Though Louth hit back and would take a slender one point lead in at the interval and it was no surprise it the scores came from the evergreen Kate Flood – striking twice in the space of ninety seconds in the dying embers of the half to give her side a 0-03-0-02 lead at the interval and leave the game on a knife-edge.
Antrim who lost to Louth at Rathmore on Sunday
Orlaith Prenter missed the opportunity to level the sides for a third time thirty seconds after the restart, but Eimear Gallagher did square the game up four minutes later.
However a stray pass from Deidre O’Kane let Louth advance deep into the Antrim half and Kate Flood conjured up her third point of the afternoon to restore Louth’s one-point advantage, 0-04-0-03.
Flood doubled her side’s advantage through a converted free and Niamh Enright missed the chance to immediately half the deficit.
Midway through the half Enright made amends with a superb point although the Saffron failed to make inroads and with ten minutes remaining Rebecca Carr restored Louth’s two-point lead.
With eight minutes remaining Antrim should have hit the front for the first time since the 24th minute when the ball was threaded into the path of Eimear Gallagher, though Louth goalkeeper Una Pearson denied the St Gall’s full-forward one-on-one and immediately the visitors turned defence to attack with Flood sending the ball over the bar to increase her sides lead to three, 0-07-0-04.
Antrim didn’t throw in the towel however and surged forward in pursuit of scores; Niamh Enright hit her second of the half with two minutes remaining and substitute Aoife Taggart quickly followed that up with a second point to cut Louth’s lead to one and make it a grandstand finish.
Louth’s game management was effective in the seven minutes of additional time though and the insurance point arrived through Flood in the second of the seven minutes from an acute angle.
Aine Devlin shot wide of the Louth goal with Antrim’s only chance in response to Flood’s sixth score of the afternoon and at the final whistle the visitors were able to celebrate back to back league victories over Antrim.
Defeat leaves the Saffrons with no margin for error going into the weekends clash with Carlow and in need of two victories to secure a semi-final berth.
The victorious Louth team
Antrim: A McCann, C Stewart, E Kelly, N McKeown, O McCrory, S Cochrane, A McFarland, A Finnegan, D O’Kane, C Taggart, A Devlin (0-01), N Enright (0-02), E Gallagher (0-02,0-01f), O Prenter, C Carey. Subs: E Falloon for C Taggart (34 mins), B Devlin for A Finnegan (47 mins), A Taggart (0-01) for E Gallagher (53 mins).
Louth: U Pearson, E Hand, R Kane, S McLoughlin, E Singleton, C Nolan, M McArdle, S Woods (0-01), R Carr (0-01), A Russell, S Byrne, B McGrane, K Hughes, K Flood (0-06,0-01f), E McArdle. Subs: R Howell for K Hughes (15 mins), L Sharkey for E McArdle (38 mins).
Referee: D Kearns