Antrim Camogie League Round 8 Loughgiel 3-12 Dunloy 0-12

Match report and photos from Michael Corcoran at Fr. Healy Park, Loughgiel

What promised to be a warm summer’s evening of spectating turned into a cool misty laden evening with Fr. Healy Park shrouded at times around the perimeter with a veil of mizzle. But that was a welcome set of circumstances for many of the players, considering how warm it was for many of us today. No hydration breaks tonight.

Despite the falling thermometer, Loughgiel warmed things up with two very early goals that had Dunloy chasing all evening. It was going to be an engaging game given that both sides almost had a full compliment due to the natural County haitus ahead of an Intermediate semi final, but no one would have anticipated the physicality in the game borne from a desire to win. Forty four fouls spread evenly across the two halves would grind the ebb and flow of the game to a simple start stop motion. All the same, in between, this evening’s game had flair, tactical play and a bunch of scores to keep the sidelines engaged.

Within two minutes of Ryan O’Reilly’s whistle, Loughgiel’s forwards had broken through Dunloy’s defence with relative ease. Loughgiel’s Lucia McNaughton fed the sliotar into Marie Laverty, offloading to Annie Lynn and with only Dunloy’s goalkeeper, Clodagh O’Kane to beat, the sliotar was fired to her left and up went the first early green flag. A minute later, Marie Laverty would exercise a simple one-two with Annie Lynn and Laverty would have the second green flag in as many minutes.

Dunloy didn’t panic, rather they went about building their score point by point, opening a salvo of seven points before the break to Loughgiel’s 2-04, five of Dunloy’s points coming from open play with Crawford, McAtamney and Aine Magill seeing the first half action. On the other hand, Loughgiel were slow to respond after their initial goal feast, building only four points coming from Laverty and Katie McKillop, two apiece leaving the scoreline at the break, Loughgiel 2-04 Dunloy 0-07.

At the switch, Aine Magill was first to wake up the large ‘Dan Scullion’ scoreboard from a free, shortly followed by a point from Loughgiel’s Katie McKillop. Magill would now stitch together three further points from fouls, with McKillop replying with four leaving a gap of four points for Dunloy to close and it would soon be three. Dunloy’s Eilis Kearns found McAtamney, now feeding through a delicate sliotar to Dunloy’s mid field machine, Eimear Johnston for a fine point.

But that would be Dunloy’s sum total of scores for the game, as Loughgiel tightened their grip on the game, starting with a short free from Clare McKillop to Katie McKillop for a point, followed by a pressured pass from Shanna Deery to Lucia McNaughton with a soaring point towards the clubhouse and finally a free from McKillop, who was on free taking form tonight. Loughgiel’s captain, Lucia McNaughton dealt the final blow with two minutes left as another soaring sliotar dived viciously under the bar for Loughgiel’s third goal and score for the night, scores ending Loughgiel 3-12 Dunloy 0-12.

To see more photos from Tuesday’s league game, click here…

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Loughgiel starting panel and scorers

Emma McAllister, Aoibheann Gillan, Megan McGarry, Finvola McVeigh, Katie Lynn, Amy Boyle, Clare McKillop, Anna Connolly, Shanna Deery, Annie Lynn 1-00, Lucia McNaughton 1-01, Katie McKillop 0-09 (7f), Marie Laverty 1-02 (1f), Christine McCloskey, Kirsty McKendry

Dunloy starting panel and scorers

Clodagh O’Kane, Eimear McMullan, Brid Magill, Kathryn Boyle, Eilis Kearns, Katie Laverty, Caoimhe Conlon, Eimear Johnston 0-01, Caitlin Crawford 0-01, Nicole McAtamney 0-02 (1f, 1×45) , Dearbhail Elliott, Bronach Magill 0-01, Aine Magill 0-07 (5f), Aileen McManus, Adria McAllister