Feis na nGleann 2026 Junior Final

Loughgiel 2-10 Cushendall 2-10

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

As winter evenings go, this one was horrible. Cold, driving rain that wouldn’t find you out looking for a shovel of coal. But wait it’s meant to be the summer! Our consolation for bearing the inclement Junior final weather was to watch a real head to head for the full sixty minutes ending in a draw 2-10 to each side. The game will be replayed due to breaking news of a family bereavement and a refixture gracefully agreed by all parties tonight.

With the spin of referee, Ryan Magee’s coin, Loughgiel won and opted to play into the driving rain, towards the clubhouse. There wasn’t any tactical advantage tonight, driving rain swept down the pitch for most of the sixty minutes. It was though, Loughgiel on the prowl for an early point after winning the sliotar from a ruck, Carlina Sullivan drifting it wide past the uprights.

Loughgiel’s Eimear McKendry would take the honours of opening the Shamrock’s score with a close range point before Sullivan would make good with her second attempt and Orlagh Laverty would make it three points in all of five minutes. Cushendall applied the pressure, subsequently winning a free that floated over the Loughgiel bar from Lára Haughey in under eleven minutes. Cushendall were now in the game and despite two more points from Loughgiel’s Rose McMullan and Kirsty McKendry, the Ruairi’s pounced on a break, getting in behind Loughgiel’s defence for a goal from Síne Woodhouse.

Cushendall’s Cliodhna Thompson followed the goal with a point to level the game before a Rose McMullan free dropped dangerously into the small box. Cushendall’s goalkeeper was faced with Shamrock jerseys rushing in and despite an attempt to diffuse the threat, but Eimear McKinley and Alana McKendry were close by to usher in the sliotar for the goal at twenty three minutes in.

There would only be a minute for the Shamrocks to enjoy the goal, when Cliodhna Thompson set up Aoife Delargy for Cushendall’s second goal of the evening. Now it was the turn of the Ruairi’s to have a moment of delight before Loughgiel’s Carlina Sullivan broke behind the Dall’s defence and sensing a closing pack, opted for a front over-the- head strike into the Ruairi’s net with only a minute on the clock before the break, scores radiating from the large Dan Scullion scoreboard, Loughgiel 2-05 Cushendall 2-02.

On the restart, it was Cushendall that would press hard into green flag territory but Erinmae Mitchell would see her rifle of a shot parried away by Loughgiel’s goalkeeper, Shauna McKillop over the bar for an opening point. Loughgiel with the driving rain on their backs now trotted out three points from Kirsty McKendry, Sullivan and a free from McMullan before Cushendall replied from a dead ball by Thompson.

Cushendall would now close Loughgiel’s drift of four points to only one in a few minutes. Two of those three points came from Thompson and one of those appeared to be run on goal ending safely over the bar, much to the supporters dismay that were encouraging a green flag. Lára Haughey’s point completed the three before Loughgiel’s Rose McMullan split the uprights from a free derived from Kirsty McKendry getting closed out from a neat hand pass from Orlagh Laverty.

Cushendall’s Haughey and Leech levelled the game with minutes to spare, but it was a fine point from a free delivered by Rose McMullan, tight on the dugout side that caused a feeling of dread amogst the Ruairi’s supporters. Despite the grains of time sifting rapidly away in favour of the Shamrocks, the Ruairi’s Lára Haughey ended a blistering solo run with a foul that was dispatched by Leech to draw the game at the final whistle. All in all, a very tight, tough and even affair that will now go to a refixture.

To see photos from Friday’s Junior Feis final, follow the link here…

https://myalbum.com/album/xPYutuTbn7NYQd/?invite=2be1cc24-71da-434d-84a1-b35fcf7826fe

Loughgiel starters and scorers

Shauna McKillop, Erin Connolly, Brianna McCloskey, Zoe Cassley, Anna Smyth, Sarah Flavin, Shauna Doran, Rose McMullan 0-04 (4f), Therese Hill (McKinley), Caoihme McGarry 0-02, Kirsty Adams (McKendry) 0-01, Eimear McKinley 1-01, Carlina Sullivan 1-02

Cushendall starters and scorer

Cailín Quinn, Aibreán Campbell, Aimee McDonnell, Tamara Black, Ellen Leech 0-02 (1f, 1×45), Erin McNaughton, Aoife McClafferty, Scarlet Kerr-McKillop, Erinmae Mitchell 0-01, Lára Haughey 0-03 (2f), Rhianna Black, Sine Woodhouse 1-00, Aoife Delargy 1-00, Cliodhna Thompson 0-04 (2f), Caoimhe O’Hara