Category / Ladies Football

by thesaffrongael

McAllister goal sends Antrim on their way at Hightown

LGFA U16 Football

Antrim 4-5 Derry 1-3

Antrim U16s brushed Derry aside at Gerry Devlin Park at Naomh Éanna on Saturday afternoon with superb performances in difficult conditions. 

The teams traded territory rather than scores in the opening minutes of the game until Antrim’s Keela McAllister opened the scoring by raising the green flag with seven minutes on the clock. Her opposite number on the Derry team, Megan Brown, responded with a well worked point from play but the Oak Leafers found it difficult to break through the Saffron defence as captain Nicole Munce swept up everything at the back. 

Two almost identical points from frees from Erin Stewart stretched the Antrim lead and when Leah Stewart got on the end of Amelie Annett’s cross to palm the ball into Catlin McCafferty’s net, the Saffron girls were out of sight. 

Cora Bellew played a quick one-two with Erin Stewart to further extend the margin for Martin Sherlock’s charges with a well worked goal. Megan Brown and Aoife Doherty would add a goal and point respectively for Derry before Brown was brought down and awarded a penalty by Eddie Cuthbert. 

Antrim ‘keeper Holly McGahey guessed right and stopped any chance of a Derry comeback by quickly clearing her lines. 

HALF TIME SCORE Antrim 3-2 Derry 1-2 

Derry were quick out of the blocks from the throw in with Brannagh Brolly charging through the Saffron defence to register what would prove to be the Oak Leafers last score of the game. It was quickly cancelled out by Anna Rice’s point from play with another quickly added by Leah Stewart. 

Although the rain had cleared, the weather in Hightown is temperamental at the best of times, and it could hardly be said that either team was playing with the wind in either half. The second period was a much scrappier affair than the first with Derry putting in a number of questionable tackles, one of which resulted in Anna Henry seeing yellow for bringing down Erin Stewart. 

Leah Cassidy put in a fine block halt any further Derry progress and Anna McGarry put the game to bed with Antrim’s fourth goal on 50 minutes. Erin Stewart rounded off a fantastic performance with another point from a free to see the Antrim girls seal an opening day win of 4-5 to 1-3. 

Antrim Scorers: K McAllister 1-0, E Stewart 0-3, C Bellew 1-0, A Rice 0-1, L Stewart 1-1, A McGarry 1-0 

Derry Scorers: M Brown 1-1, A Doherty 0-1, B Brolly 0-1. 

Referee: E Cuthbert (An Dún)

by thesaffrongael

Encouraging start for Antrim Minor ladies

Antrim 5-16 

Fermanagh 0-6

The Antrim Minor County LGFA manager Sean Fleming along with his coaching team

 Aiden Morris and Marie Therese Fleming must be happy with the progress of the minor ladies over the last few weeks. The team travelled to Irvinestown on Sunday afternoon to play Fermanagh’s Minors. It was a strong performance from the Saffron girls who dominated for long periods in a game where their opponents produced periods of good football.

A great attacking display by the Antrim Minor girls, supported by a resolute defence saw them take control with Lead Stewart and Erin Stewart prominent in a slick attack and sharing 3 goals and 5 points but the foundation for this solid performance was set in the defence.

Hard running, tight marking and work rate broke up the Fermanagh attacks to allow quick transition out of defence. Antrim had the upper hand around mid -field and with strong running from, Adams, O’Neill, McDonnell, Kelly and Annette, the forwards were provided with the opportunities to score. The strength of the bench will have given Sean Fleming and his management team further encouragement as they contributed 1-6 to the side’s final total.

Scorers:

L.Stewart 2-2

E.Stewart 1-3

L.Adams 1-1

C.Logan 1-0

C.Maguire 0-3

K.Donnelly 0-2

A.Kelly 0-1

N.McKinley 0-1

M.McAtamney 0-1

T.Elley 0-1

A.McDonnell 0-1

by thesaffrongael

 A great year for St. Ergnat’s Orla Prenter

Photographs: Elaine Kelly

It’s been a great year for St Ergnat’s Moneyglass Orlaith Prenter. Her club retained their Antrim ladies senior championship title with Prenter playing a pivotal role in their success. St. Ergnat’s went on to give Ulster a real rattle before losing narrowly in the final to the renowned Donaghmoyne of Monaghan. 

Prenter’s scoring prowess played a major role in her clubs success and she carried that form into a very successful season for her county where they claimed the All Ireland Junior title and her performances saw her named on the All Ireland team of the Championship 2022.

When the Moneyglass sharp shooter spoke to the Saffron Gael recently she reflected on what has been a very successful season.

“With this being my first season on the senior panel it was a great start to potentially more success. Winning the All-Ireland was great for the county and I enjoyed winning with so many of my Moneyglass teammates. Our aim now for the 2023 season is to gain promotion to division 3 which we are already working on and make an impact in the Ulster and all Ireland championship”

Orla Prtenter in action in the Antrim SFC against Gort na Mona

She continued “The success we had with our own club and county this past season will be hard to beat. Our goal has always been to win an Antrim title and now that we have progressed further in the Ulster competition over the past couple years all we want now is to win the Ulster title. All the girls have put in a serious effort this year and it has been an extremely enjoyable year of football.

Experiencing the feeling of getting to an Ulster final last year we all want to push on and take it a step further this year. Being top scorer for the club championship is obviously an achievement in itself and it’s great to be acknowledged for all the hard work put in over the last year. A lot of the scores were from placed kicks this year, so of course a lot of the scores wouldn’t have come without the likes of our half backs/forwards and midfields driving through the middle which is massively important for us”.

Orla Prtenter is already looking forward to another successful season with her club and county and undoubtedly she will play a major role in the progress of both in 2023

by thesaffrongael

Strong Antrim presence in St. Mary’s bid for Ulster glory

MUSA Cookstown Thursday 26th January at 11:30.  

There’s a strong Antrim presence on the St. Mary’s Magherafelt side who make their bid for Ulster glory in Cookstown on Thursday. Moneyglass’ Kate Higgins captains the Convent side and is joined by Leah Stewart, Aoife Kelly, Sarah O’Neill, Sally Scullion, Cara McKeefry, and Cara McCann.

This will be St. Mary’s third Ulster Final in two weeks. This time it is the turn of the Ladies Under-20 football team who will face Loreto College Omagh at the MUSA, Cookstown.

Kate Higgins from Moneyglass who will captain the St. Mary’s side

Captained by Kate Higgins, the girls are determined to go one step further this year after suffering defeat to Coláiste Oirial in last year’s final.  Captain Higgins stated, “I think our defeat last year will drive us to success in 2023. Miss Hughes and Mr McCauley have worked hard with us at training and the team spirit is excellent. The Under 16 girls have really pushed the older girls on at training and everyone in school is looking forward to the final on Thursday.

The St. Mary’s girls got off to a flying start in their under 20 Ulster campaign with three wins from three in the group stages against St Pius X College Magherafelt, Holy Trinity College, Cookstown and St. Ciaran’s, Ballygawley. Throughout the group stage there was a common theme, teams found it difficult to deal with the ferocity of the SMG attack. With Aoife Kelly and Caoileann Quinn’s attacking runs were constantly rewarded by the excellent movement of Eva Small in the full forward line who proved a thorn in opposing teams’ defensive sides.

Aoife Kelly
Sarah O’Neill

The St Mary’s girls accumulated substantial scores with sharp shooters, Sarah Devlin, Amy-Rose Mulligan and Niamh O’Donnell on target. With the help of Leah Stewart and Cara Mckeefery the girls racked up impressive score lines to cement their place in the quarter final.

Loreto Letterkenny were waiting in the quarter- final and on a cold, wet day in Owenbeg the SMG girls picked up where they left off from the group stages. Again, Small and O’Donnell caused problems in the full forward line and strong defensive performances from Sarah O’Neill and Seannagh McLarnon ensured that St Mary’s came out on top.



In the Semi-Final the SMG girls travelled to MUSA to face a determined Sacred Heart Newry team from Down who posed the girls biggest challenge to date. Little separated the girls in the first half and an early goal from Newry made it clear that the Magherafelt girls would not get everything their own way. Against a strong breeze in Cookstown, the girls managed to gain a two-point lead at half time. St Mary’s came out determined at the start of the second half, however, it wasn’t until that last 10 minutes where a fantastic team move ended with a Sarah O’Neill’s goal that cemented a place in the final for the second year in a row.

The journey for SMG to the Ulster Final has been down to a real team drive, a strong bench and the great work of the management team plus the passion to lift the Ulster title in 2023.

L to R Leah Stewart Moneyglass , Sally Scullion Cargin, Aoife Kelly Moneyglass , Sarah O’Neill Moneyglass , Cara McKeefry Moneyglass and Cara McCann Creggan 

The St. Mary’s magherafelt side who play Loreto College, Omagh in the Ulster U20 final in Cookstown on Thursday
by thesaffrongael

Tierney inspires Emmet Og to victory

Ulster Ladies MFC Quarter-Final

Emmet Og 3-11 St. Ergnat’s 1-7

St. Ergnats, Moneyglass bowed out of the Ulster Minor ladies football championship when they were beaten by an excellent Emmet Og at the quarter-final stage today. Emmet Og manager Marty Fox admitted after the game that he had watched the Moneyglass senior ladies in their final two weeks ago and had clearly done his homework on the minor players who had featured in that game.

His hard work clearly paid off and his side now go forward to the semi-final after an impressive win over the Antrim champions who were expected to be challenging for honours this year.

There was little between the sides during the opening half with an injury time goal from Ciara O’Boyle leaving the Antrim champions trailing by a goal at half time and at this stage they looked in with a serious shout.

Three Maria O’Neill’s points and another from Aoife Kelly accounted for the rest of the Moneyglass total with Emmet Og replying with goals from Mairead Cusack and Dearbhla Quigley and the superb Sarah Tierney accounting for all four of their first half points.

Tierney continued to weave her magic during the second half as she added a further six points and a goal from the same player in the 21st minute brought her personal tally to 1-10 for the evening and killed off the challenge of the St. Ergnat’s girls despite fighting performances from Aoife Kelly, Maria O’Neill, Molly McCoy, Sarah O’Neill, Niamh Neeson and Cliona Griffin, Ciara O’Boyle and Ciara Scullin.

Nicole Cassidy and Katie McCloskey accounted for the Moneyglass points in the second half but the St. Ergnat’s were forced to concede in the end to an Emmet Og team who were inspired by Sarah Tierney.