LGFA Ulster JFC
Derry 1-5 Antrim 4-12
Antrim senior ladies made the journey to Ballerin on Saturday to play Derry in the opening round of the ulster junior championship and came away with a 4-12 to 1-5 victory.
Antrim had the ball in the Derry net after just 14 seconds when Theresa Mellon broke clear and planted the ball into the bottom corner.
Maria O Neill then hit the first of her tally of five points with Aoife Kelly following up a minute later with a superb point from a tight angle.
Then on the fourth minute Antrim scored their second goal when the lively Maria O’Neill danced past two defenders and made no mistake from close range.
Captain Bronagh Devlin then put a 30 metre free over the bar to leave Antrim nine to the good with only 8 minutes on the clock.
The impressive Theresa Mellon then got her second goal when she finished high to the net after great approach play between Ana Mulholland and Sarah O Neill.
Derry then hit 3 unanswered points on the bounce before Maria O Neill and Nicole Jones raised white flags for the Antrim girls.
Antrim were dominating the game again and Aoife Kelly, Theresa Mellon and Laura Agnew all registered one pointers just before the half time whistle.
The first ten minutes of the second half saw Antrim dominating the ball as they did in the first but they just couldn’t register a score.
Derry then punished them for their misses when they hit an unanswered 1-2 and Antrim were struggling to find the flair they had played with in the first half.
But again this Antrim team showed character and resilience and Ciara Brown was instrumental in setting up points each for the hard working Olivia Todd and Maria O Neill.
Maria then scored a free and with two minutes to go Blaithin Ni Cahill sent Laura Agnew through and she found the net to put the gloss on a good performance from the Antrim girls.
The Antrim management team of Micky and Chris were delighted to get their championship campaign of to a good start. The men said after the game.
“We controlled the game for the biggest part of the 60 minutes… created and took some great scores but most off all the players worked really hard and deserved their victory today.
We now go next week again against the unknown of London in Tir na nOg Randlestown next Saturday with a 1 pm throw in”
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