Antrim get their All Ireland campaign off to a great start

TG4 All Ireland Intermediate LGFA Championship

Antrim 4-15 Offaly 1-9

Antrim senior ladies got their all Ireland campaign of to a winning start on Sunday with this 15 point victory over Offaly in Randalstown.

Antrims first half performance was superb…

Captain Bronagh Devlin opened the scoring when she palmed the ball to the Offaly net and this was followed by a great point from Ciara Maguire…

Offaly then raised a white flag of their own but from the resulting kick out Antrim flew up the pitch and Maria O Neill sent the ball over the bar …

Antrim were totally dominant at this stage and points from Aine Lynch, Aileen Mc Donnell, Carla Mc Kenna and another from Maria O Neill kept the scoreboard ticking over in the Saffrons favour…

Offaly then broke and raised a green flag of their own but back came Antrim with Maguire and McDonnell getting their second score each of the day …

Antrim were playing with confidence and the fluency in their play and their pace was giving the Offaly rearguard all sorts of problems…

Antrims defence were superb in the first half as they completely dominated the defensive zone and their tackling was immense with every girl giving it everythin, and just before the break an Antrim move from one end of the pitch to the other resulted in Bronagh Devlin raising her second green flag of the day …

The second half started well with Lara Dahunsi, Ciara Maguire and Aine Lynch all taking points each to increase their advantage

The girls then seem to lose their way for 15 minutes and in this period Offaly dominated and took 5 good points…

However the Saffs weathered the storm and Devlin, O’Neill and the impressive Emma Louise Mc Areavey restored normality for the home team …

Carla Mc Kenna was then put through on goal by Caitlin Taggart but as she was about to pull the trigger the Offaly keeper took the two feet from under her, but from the resulting penalty up stepped Aoife Taggart to hammer the ball hard and low to the Offaly net and leave the keeper with no chance …

This was a great start to the campaign for the girls and they hit the road this Sunday for game two with an away game to Derry time and venue to be confirmed…

Antrim manager Micky said after the game..

“This was a great start for us . Our football at times was fantastic and we had 9 different scorers out there today …

Our work rate was immense with every girl coming out of that game with great credit…

A few girls made their first start for us today and certainly put in big performances…

We will now prepare for next weeks game where the same performance will be required in order to get another victory…