Antrim Senior Div 1 League 29th April 2025
Loughgiel 1-20 Ballycastle 1-13
Match report and photos from Michael Corcoran at Fr. Healy Park, Loughgiel
Summer arrived in Fr. Healy Park and temperatures hovered around 20 degrees at the 7pm throw-in. The pleasant warm air augmented the evening’s sporting entertainment as spectators lined the Park in short sleeves.
Jerome McAllister officiated the game and once the sliotar was rolled in, Ballycastle’s Elen McIntosh had the honour of the first strike for a point but the sliotar floated wide of the post and that honour would fall to Loughgiel’s Marie Laverty who took possession straight from the puck out.
Loughgiel’s Carlina Sullivan and Anna McKillop would improve their score with another two points before Ballycastle’s Sionainn Graham closed the gap by one, a minute later.
Pushing up into Ballycastle’s half resulted in another two points for Loughgiel, both coming from close quarter passing from Christine McCloskey to Ciara Laverty and McCloskey took her own point as Marie Laverty offered up the sliotar.
Loughgiel’s free taker, Katie McKillop, stepped up to take her first free of the evening with ten minutes elapsed on the scoreboard; McKillop’s dropping sliotar finding the back of the net from an acute angle, dropping just under the bar, but Ballycastle would quickly neutralise that green flag when a goal mouth scramble from a sliotar brought safely to earth by keeper, Shauna McKillop, resulted in the sliotar momentarily rolling over the goal line from an outstretched stick of Sionainn Graham. McAllister was quick to acknowledge the umpire’s call, and the game quickly reverted to a four-point game, Loughgiel 1-05 Ballycastle 1-1.
For the remainder of the first half, both sides went toe to toe for the next six points but drama wasn’t far away as Loughgiel’s Marie Laverty closed in on Ballycastle’s goalkeeper, Erin O’Hara, although O’Hara’s first block prevented Laverty from a score off the stick, the quick-thinking Shamrock kicked the sliotar towards the goal, but Kathyrn Mullan was on the line to save the Town from a certain goal. At the other end of the pitch, Ballycastle’s Eimear McCaughan found the sliotar after a long puckout from O’Hara, solo running and a strike to a certain goal had it not been for the heroics of Finvola McVeigh stretching to deflect the sliotar wide. At the short whistle, Loughgiel held onto a four-point lead, 1-11 to 1-07.
The second half of tonight’s fixture witnessed a comeback from Ballycastle, as they mounted their attack and over nine minutes, found the catch net four times compared to Loughgiel’s one point from a 45. One of those points from Ballycastle’s Eimear McCaughan wouldn’t be found in any camogie textbook, as she took her point intentionally from striking a bouncing ball. That peppering of Loughgile’s catch net closed the gap to just two points, but with only seven minutes left of normal time, the Shamrock’s appeared to drop into another gear and cruised five points without reply to the long whistle, the scoreboard registering Loughgiel 1-20 Ballycastle 1-13.
This was a great game to watch so early in the league campaign, even though both sides were missing players, spectators were treated to a fast and physical game.
Loughgiel panel and scorers
Shauna McKillop, Charlene Campbell, Finvola McVeigh, Maria Lynn, Sarah Flavin, Megan McGarry, Maeve Shannon, Louise McKillop, Ciara Laverty, Katie McKillop 1-11 (2×45, 5f), Marie Laverty 0-02, Christine McCloskey 0-02, Ciara Connolly 0-01, Carlina Sullivan 0-01, Anna McKillop 0-01, Emma McAllister, Aoibheann Gillan, Erin Connolly, Anna Connolly, Therese McKinley, Shanna Deery 0-01
Ballycastle panel and scorers
Erin O’Hara, Niamh Ann Donnelly, Kathryn Mullan, Maria Donnelly, Maebh O’Neill, Enya McShane, Catherine McShane, Aoife Toner, Fay McIntosh, Elen McIntosh 0-07 (1×45, 4f), Sionainn Graham 1-02, Riana McBride, Nuala Devlin 0-01, Marie Bakewell 0-01, Eimear McCaughan 0-01, Fionnuala Toner, Louise McBride, Christina Hamilton, Fay Roddy, Eva Graham, Mary Cate Slevin, Olivia Connolly
Photos from this evening’s game can be found by clicking on the link here…
https://myalbum.com/album/my9svcnnMjMnFG/?invite=add7f09a-c11c-4278-9939-e8d3e6e08d1c