AIB Ulster Senior club final
Loughgiel (Antrim) 0-20 Liatroim Fontenoys (Down) 0-3
LOUGHGIEL’S Player of the match Róisín McCormick honestly summed up Sunday’s comprehensive victory by her team over Down champions Liatriom in the Box-It Athletic Grounds in Armagh.
“The Ulster senior club championship is a high standard and any Down team coming up from Intermediate level was going to find the going tough. Liatroim played well, hit hard and the score line doesn’t reflect the game we played. We just had more experience.”
It what turned out to be a one sided affair it took the Down champions 38 minutes to get a score on the board. By the time Kelly Duffin fired a shot between the posts, last year’s beaten All-Ireland finalists were 14 points to the good.
Eleven of those scores came in the first half, Liatroim’s need to register an opening score to settle them disrupted by fouls called on a number of hand-passes out of defence.
McCormick hit five points in each half. Her Antrim team-mate Caitrín Dobbin registered three points, including the opener with just 60 seconds on the clock. Annie Lynn also scored three points but Natalie McKibbin and Karen McMullan did well in the Liatroim defence while the industrious Dearbhla Magee and Aimee McAleenan deserved late points that were never going to trouble the Shamrocks
Loughgiel have now collected their sixth provincial title, their current run of ten successive Ulster club finals book-ended by two titles at each side.
The win sets up an All Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny champions Dicksboro in two weeks’ time as the Shamrocks bid to make it back to back All Ireland finals. They will be well aware that the side they are meeting will be a different proposition than Sunday’s opponents but Benny Dillon and his management team will be pleased to get another good sixty minutes under their belts and will relish the challenge the Leinster side will present.
Scorers
Loughgiel: R McCormick 0-10, 4 frees, A Lynn 0-3, C Dobbin 0-3, 1 free, O Laverty 0-1, Christine Laverty 0-1, A Boyle 0-1, A Connolly.
Liatroim: K Duffin 0-1, A McAleenan 0-1, D Magee 0-1.
Loughgiel: E Boyle, C Campbell, Ciara Laverty, M Lynn, E McFadden, C Boyle, C McKillop, A Boyle, L McNaughton, Christine Laverty capt, A Connolly, R McCormick, C Dobbin, A Lynn, O Laverty
Subs: Ú McNaughton for O Laverty (51), A McKillop for C Boyle (51), M McGarry for A Lynn (57), F McVeigh for M Lynn (59), K McKillop for R McCormick (60)
Liatroim: N O’Toole, O Brown, A Brown capt, S McAleenan, C Davidson, K McMullan, C McAnulty, K Duffin, R O’Toole, D Magee, SL Clarke, A McAleenan, O Blaney, K McAleenan, N McKibbin
Subs: A McCrickard for R O’Toole (HT), R Carson for K McAleenan(38), C O’Toole for O Blaney (45), A McElroy for C McAnulty (55), A O’Higgins for SL Clarke (59)
Referee: P McDonald (Cavan)
