Latharna Og travelled up the A8 to Mallusk to play Loch Mór Dál gCais. After late changes with the match being put back to 8pm and a reshuffle of the team, as only 14 Loch Mór Dál gCais players were available, the girls put the confusion behind them and put their head in the game. After a slow start and a very physical game, they soon got composure and shape throughout the team. It didn’t take long to get into their usual swing of things and they started to tick the scoreboard over nicely. A great scoring exhibition from Beth McCauley and Erin Petticrew getting back into the form of last year. Good to see Bronagh Shields and Holly Gillan consistently getting the scores in again, with Ellie McKinley and Colleen Duffy adding further points to the tally. A lot of debut starts for girls – and what a performance they put in, they didn’t shy away from any action and they will for sure give management headaches. Again the girls are asked to show up and do the best they can whoever the opposition and that they did! Management can only speak highly of them when chatting about the girls “from training session and matches – the enjoyment is the key factor which makes it all click to get the right performance – they are credit to mentor” Well done to Emma McConkey (debut) Ellie McKinley and Alice Gillan for standout performances. Beth McCauley for the continued Scores Good luck to Loch Mór Dál gCais in their remaining fixtures
Thanks again to @paulmcilwaine for the great photos
As Vincent Boyle blew the whistle and threw the ball in, the rain was pelting down and conditions were poor with light fading. Both sides started the contest battling for every ball and nothing really separated the teams bar the ability of both their goalkeepers – Rossa’s Sophia Erskine and Creggan’s Fiona Maguire were both outstanding making brave saves, clearing their line and pucking the ball out with pinpoint accuracy. The home side had a 4 point lead with 10 minutes to go and the visitors threw everything at them but they couldn’t close he gap.
Mary Murray got the Staffordstown side up and running with a clever point 3 minutes in. County Player Eavanne Martin added the next 2 points – 1 from play and 1 from a free. Rossa’s response was a quick point from Caoimhe McNeice and a goal minutes later from Lois Lynch to put the visitors 1 point up but this was Rossa’s last score until the 28th minute when Deborah Lees was on target from close range after several unsuccessful attempts. As we approached half time, Rossa were guilty of some poor finishing and bad luck. Creggan, on the other hand, had Eavanne Martin in top form adding 2 further points from the placed ball while her colleague Mary Murray doubled her tally with the last point of the half to leave Creggan 2 points ahead at the break
HALF TIME SCORE: Creggan 0.07 v Rossa 1.02
It took 10 minutes of second half action before a white flag was raised. Both teams battled intensely around mid-field and the ball and that is where the majority of the exchanges were concentrated.
Rossa’s Natalie McGuinness, Lois McMullan and Lois Lynch fought intensely with Creggan’s Aoife McAteer, Ella McAteer and Rubymarie Rice ensuring that scores would be at a premium. Eavanne Martin increased her tally by adding another pointed free while her team mate Mia Quinn got her name on the score board toextend the Creggan lead 12 minutes into the game.
As the tussle continued with players managing to break out of midfield, it was now the job of both the talented goalkeepers to keep the respective sides within touching distance. Sophia Erskine and Creggan’s Maguire both produced superb saves given the terrible conditions.
Rossa had a great opportunity with12 minutes to go from a 20m free to narrow the gap as Emily McGurk lined up to take the free. The signal came from the dugout to go low striking the ball directly at Creggan’s Maguire who stopped it dead before launching it out to be intercepted by Aoife McAteer who duly dropped it over the bar.
The visitors’ failed attempt on goal only encouraged their intensity. Their defence worked tirelessly – Clodagh McMenamin, Deborah Lee and Jade McKnight – held firm to keep the Creggan advance from over running their goal. The visitors became increasingly desperate to close the 3 point gap and they put the Creggan backline under overwhelming pressure – the experienced Kelly Mulholland, Emma McAuley and Rose Carey Small were superb in defence.
The Rossa push forward left their defence vulnerable and Creggan’s substitute Ciara McCollum, Susan McIlwee and Eavanne Martin were unlucky as the ball drifted low and wide twice with 5 minutes to go. The home side finally got through for the goal that their pressure deserved however and vulnerable and Eavanne Martin finished the action for the day with a goal on injury time.
CREGGAN: No.1 Fional Maguire No.2 Emma McAuley, No.3 Kelly Mulholland, No.4 Rose Carey Small, No.5 Caoimhe McAteer, No.6 Megan Nelson, No.7 Sile Murray, No.8 Aoife McAteer (0.01), No.9 Ella McAteer, No.10 Eavanne Martin (1.06), No.11 Rubymarie Rice, No.12 Mia Quinn (0.01) No.13 Cerys O’Neill, No.14 Susan McIlwee, No.15 Mary Murray (0.02,) No.16 Maria Gately, No.17 Ciara McCollum, No.18 Neva Chauhan, No.20 Aine Colgan, No.21 Megan Darragh, No.22 Laura McCann.
ANTRIM ambushed Derry to overturn a 14 points’ defeat in their group game and lead from pillar to post in this Ulster under 16 Cup final in Swatragh. The standard of play was very high throughout and made for an excellent game, but the damage was all done in the opening half. The visitors scored the first four points before Carla Collins hit back with a point for Derry. But from the poc out, Shannagh Heggarty found Orlaith McAlister who took out two players with a clever hand-pass for Mary McArthur to find the net.
Derry fought back however and when Collins and Leah Cassidy combined for Natalie McKenna to goal in the 16th minute, it was back to a one-point game, 1-4 to 1-3. A key moment in the game came with Antrim’s response. Kady McNeill ran on to a long ball over the Derry defence and smashed home a spectacular goal. In the next Antrim attack, Mary McArthur chased a lost cause along the end-line and poked the sliotar across the face of the Derry goal. From the confusion that ensued, Kady McNeill rushed in to take possession and again find the roof of the net. Although Derry hit back with scores from Ellie Griffin and Leah Cassidy, Antrim finished the half strongly with points from Tara McAfee, Shannagh Heggarty and a Kady McNeill free to lead 3-7 to 1-5 at the change of ends. There was a breeze against Antrim for the second half and they opted to play goal-scorer McNeill as a sweeper. Initially Derry were able to bye-pass her and halved the eight points’ deficit by the 41st minute with three points from Carla Collins and another from Orla McCartney who would go on to collect three points from play and really trouble the Antrim defence. The tactic seemed to be drawing pressure on Antrim, but Orlaith McCurry relieved it with a fine point. At the other end Collins (free) and McCartney narrowed the gap to make it 3-8 to 1-11. Antrim needed some breathing space and they got it with points from McCurry and Shannagh Heggarty with ten minutes left.
However the Antrim defence were under a huge amount of pressure and Eimear McGivern brought off a great save from a shot from Carla Collins while Kady McNeill cleared a lot of ball in her free role. The Saffrons absorbed the pressure and McCurry replied to a point from a Carla Collins 45 as the game headed into added time. Orla McCartney then fired over when a goal looked on. The Derry goal eventually came in the 62nd minute when a free-in wasn’t properly cleared and Collins blasted to the net from an acute angle. However it came too late to save the Oak Leaf, despite a huge effort from Paige Bell, Jemma Shivers, Cait Conway and the two main scorers. Antrim survived on the score-board as a result of Orlaith McCurry three second half points. However there were also sound performances all over the pitch particularly when under pressure during the same period.
Player of the Match went to Kady McNeill. Her two goals in the opening half put her side in control, but more important were her clearances when Derry applied the pressure during the last half hour. It finished off a brilliant weekend for Antrim camogie with a third Ulster title inside 24 hours and an Intermediate final to look forward to next weekend. It also added to the medal tally for Janey McIntosh and Abi McNeill who won Ulster minor medals at the start of April. McNeill was also in the St Killian’s Garron Tower side that won the All-Ireland schools’ title in March and another half dozen from the Tower contributed to this success, including Player of the Match Kady McNeill who just happened to win the same accolade in the All-Ireland schools’ final.
Antrim: E McGivern, E Connolly, A McNeill, C Duffin, A Ferris, A O’Donnell, L Black, M Devlin, K McNeill 2-1, 0-1 free, T McAfee 0-2, S Heggarty 0-3, 1 free, O McCurry 0-3, J McIntosh 0-1, M McArthur 1-0, O McAlister 0-1. Sub: C McCann for T McAfee (23) Derry: N Okoronkwo, C Campbell, G Drain, E McCormack, J Shivers, P Bell, E McNally, G Kelly, C Conway, O McCartney 0-4, C Collins 1-6, 0-4 frees, E Murray, N McKenna 1-0, L Cassidy 0-2, E Griffin 0-1. Subs: T Kelly for N Okoronkwo (21), A Mulholland for N McKenna (30), C Chambers for L Cassidy (37), A Kearney for E McNally (52).
Aisling O’Donnell receives the cup from Deirdre McGrath, Ulster President
WHAT a pity that this game was played at the same time as the Antrim seniors were winning the Ulster title in Edendork. This was a cracking contest between two evenly-matched teams and ended with a grandstand finish.
When the teams met in the league Cavan just edged home by a couple of points and went on to win the Division Three title. Saturday’s result will have taken them right back to earth.
Antrim had obviously done a lot of work since the league game a couple of months ago. They put in a solid performance from start to finish and brought on some of the Ulster winning minors during the last quarter for fresh legs.
They also were disciplined at the back meaning that Clodagh Keenaghan didn’t get to score too many frees to eat into the team’s confidence. Goal-grabber Shanise Fitzsimons was held scoreless by Eilish Kearns although she did break clear at the death and Áine Graham came off her line to smother the shot and effectively win the game.
Emma and Katie Laverty got through a pile of work at half-back and the two main scorers kept Antrim in touch for them to snatch a surprise win and a place in next weekend’s final with Armagh.
Antrim went into a 0-6 to 0-2 lead at the end of the first quarter with four points from Dervla Cosgrove frees and two from play for Caoimhe McNaughton.
However Tina Reilly struck for a Cavan goal in the 18th minute and Niamh Keenaghan grabbed another eight minutes later to put the home side a goal to the good.
Antrim though got back off the deck with points from Cosgrove and McNaughton only for Clodagh Keenaghan with two injury time frees to make it 2-5 to 0-8 at the turnover.
The teams split six points evenly during the third quarter before Antrim got a break when a long ball from McNaughton deceived Laura Bambrick and ended in the net in the 48th minute.
Keenaghan responded with a free four minutes later to give Cavan the lead once more. But Orlagh Laverty popped over a point and Dervla Cosgrove kept her head to land a free that edged Antrim ahead.
However there were more than five scoreless minutes and that late save from Aine Graham before the Saffrons could celebrate reaching another Ulster final – the county’s fifth from five attempts.
Antrim: Á Graham, M McGarry, E Kearns, E McShane, E Laverty, K Laverty, M McLarnon, C Kearney, A McNeill, C McNaughton 1-4, D Cosgrove 0-8 (7fs), F Kelly, N Devlin, S Cosgrove, O Laverty 0-1.
Subs: Bronach Magill for M McLarnon, C McArthur for N Devlin, Brid Magill for A McNeill, T O’Neill for C Kearney, B Abram for D Cosgrove.
Cavan: L Babrick, Á Finnegan, E Galligan, S Cusack, A Collins, R Crowe-McKeever, J Maguire, E Fitzpatrick, N Keengahan 1-0, C Fay 0-1, E Brady 0-1, C Keenaghan 0-7 (f), T Reilly 1-0, S Fitzsimons, A Keenaghan
For the first 45 minutes of this Ulster under 16 Shield decider, there was little between the sides. But Antrim exploded over the last quarter to convincingly win the title.
The winners looked the better team during the first half, but couldn’t get enough scores on the board to confirm that observation.
Niamh McNeill and Siofra McCreesh swopped points over the first ten minutes and then it looked as if Antrim were getting on top when Caela Dobbin, Rhianna Black and McNeill pointed.
However all that pressure was cancelled out at the other end when Molly Fegan drove low from 30 metres and the sliotar was deflected past Aoife McCaughan in the Saffron nets.
McNeill however lifted Antrim heads again shortly before the break with her third point of the half.
There was stalemate for the first ten minutes of the second half until points from Caoimhe Hart and Molly Fegan edged Armagh ahead.
Those scores acted as a wake up call for Antrim as Eabha McAllister’s incisive running opened the door for a flurry of scores.
McAllister went on a solo run from midfield just after Fegan’s lead point for Armagh. Her shot was saved well by Molly Monaghan but it fell in the path of Niamh McNeill who slammed it to the net. The same player quickly added a point.
With ten minutes to go, Leona Gillan came off the bench and scored a point with her first possession. Eabha McAllister immediately added two identical goals, again bursting through the centre and firing to the net.
Under 16 capt Sarah Louise Kearns receives the trophyUnder 16 Player of Match Eabha McAllister receives her award
The Dunloy girl wasn’t finished. Another solo run and a point in the 58th minute was followed by her third goal at the start of the injury time.
In the end a convincing win for the under 15s with those final 15 minutes something to savour. Not surprisingly Eabha McAllister picked up the Player of the Match award while club-mate and team captain Sarah Louise Kearns got to lift the Shield on behalf of the team.
Antrim: A McCaughan, KR Drain, R Maybin, A Gillan, C Crawford, SL Kearns cpat, M Graham, E McAllister 3-1, C Dobbin 0-1, R Black 0-1, K McCloskey, O McNulty, M horan, N McNeill 1-4, N McAllister.
Subs: C O’Hagan, E Neeson, R Matthews, L Gillan 0-1, M Cunning, S Brennan, N Munce.
Armagh: M Monaghan, C Tohill capt., L Gallogly, M Cunningham, A Carson, A Murphy, O Hunter, C Hart 0-1 free, S Doherty, S McCreesh 0-1, M Fegan 1-1, L McConnell, J Traynor, E McGahan, E Chahill.
Subs: M Judge, AL Caraher, M Lavery, A O’Hara.Referee : M Quigg (Derry).
