LGFA Under 14A final in Portglenone

Cargin v St Paul’s

On Tuesday evening a piece of history was made by the young Cailiní of Erin’s Own Cargin where they won the club’s first Ladies Football ‘A’ Grade Championship title in style in front of an appreciative audience at Roger Casements, Portglenone. The LGFA section of Cargin celebrated the creation of their first Senior ladies football team in 2024 and this triumph in the u14A final has endorsed the rapid inroads Clann na hEireann are making as they have built steadily from their first foray into Girls football since the creation of an U8 side in 2015.

In dry conditions and with a cool breeze traversing across the pitch, the Cargin Girls started brightly, taking the game to their talented opponents, against those veterans of the Antrim LGFA scene, St Pauls.  Indeed the Belfast ladies came right back, showing their fighting spirit to close the gap at half time just 3 points whereby earlier it had looked like the game would run away from them.  Caoimhe Doherty, Maisie Kelly and Cliodhna McKeever had put excellent scores on the board, while a powerful run and finish by Emily Scullion cemented Cargin’s foothold in the game at 1-3 to 0-0. The game was threatening to get away from the beleaguered Shaws Road Girls but an amazing solo run and exquisite finish to the back of the Cargin net brought St Pauls back into it. An Carraigín weren’t finished yet and another well worked move found Niamh McAleese who delivered a sumptuous effort into the St Pauls net.  The half to finished on a scoreline of 2-4 to 1-1 at the short whistle. 

The St Paul’s Girls were determined to come out fighting in the 2nd half and promptly began some hard running at the Cargin defence, testing all avenues to find a way through. Eve O’Donnell, Holly McErlain and Fiadh O’Boyle stood strong, nullifying the attacks with excellent reading of the game and determined tackling. Amy Graham was the epitome of calm in the Cargin goal, displaying a safe pair of hands and a flawless kicking game throughout.  Cargin’s half back line of Gemma McAuley, Erin Neeson and Niamh McAleese was superb, constantly harassing their opponents and then breaking at speed, working the ball out quickly and confidently to their attacking unit.    

Cliodhna McKeever was simply majestic in the middle of the park, ending the game with 3 goals to her credit and a display of composure, athleticism and attacking menace that was impossible to stop.   Niamh Martin broke every ball, covered each blade of grass and intelligently released the half back counterattacks. Annie Convery reads the game so well, seemingly knowing where the ball will end up and is always in the right place at the right time, snuffing out danger and dealing with the magnificent midfield duo of St Pauls who were constantly scheming and dangerous.  Emily Scullion, Eva McCann and Caoimhe Doherty formed a potent mix of craft, guile, skill and hunger which the St Paul’s defence tried manfully to contain but to no avail while Dearbhla McCaffrey and Maisie Kelly held the full forward line, consistently pulling them each way and that while interchanging with the Cargin half forward line to create mayhem in St Paul’s rearguard action.   

The Belfast ladies never gave up. To the last whistle they continued to drive forward, searching for goals that would bring some hope to proceedings but the more the game opened up, the worse the situation got as Cargin’s potent forward line began to pick them off with brilliant 2nd half goals from Cliodhna McKeever, Eva McCann and a late penalty blasted high into the net by full back Holly McErlain to complete the evening with a final scoreline of 7-8 to 1-3 to the Erin’s Own girls. When the Cailiní had ran themselves to exhaustion, Cargin released Sophia McCann, Eva Scullion, Adele McCann, Cate McCann and Sienna Conway into the fray to bring renewed energy and direct running into the forward line, but also to also shore up the midfield and defence which they each did magnificently.  

This St Pauls u14 side are full of talent and there are no doubts they will come back stronger and with renewed hunger following this gutsy performance. They came up against a well drilled Cargin unit who will undoubtedly want more success following this landmark title for the club and congratulations also go to the management team of Tomás McCann, Gerard O’Boyle, Maria O’Neill, Sarah O’Neill and Mary McAuley.  Based on Tuesday evening’s proceedings, Antrim Ladies football is on a positive footing and the game within the county is in a good place.