U14 Championship V St. Annes Thur 21 May 09. Venue: Hollymount report By Paul Tobin.
Shelmalier 7-8 St. Annes 2-7.
Having been beaten by the girls from Rathangan in the Féile, we had looked forward to this rematch at an overcast Hollymount.
First Half: We won the toss and elected to play with the wind. We started, and played the whole game, with a five-girl forward line, as two girls, Ciara Corrigan and Geraldine Doolan were given the job of marking the Anne’s danger-woman, Fiona Bennett. We opened brightly, with Niamh Doyle and Gemma McCabe gathering a huge amount of ball in midfield and either delivering it well to the forwards or running at the defence. Marcella Furlong ran riot up front in the first half, repeatedly driving at the Anne’s defence and creating chances for others. Goals from Róisín Tobin, Niamh O’ Connor(two), Marcella and points from Gemma, Niamh Doyle and Mary O’ Rourke left us well ahead at half time.
Half-time score: Shels 4-4: St. Annes: 1-2.
Second half: We knew that the Annes would come at us with the wind behind them, but as the half wore on it was clear that our girls were digging in. The Annes did get some scores, but our girls nearly always replied immediately with one of their own. Eventually it became clear that the game was ours and as the Annes’s girls tired, we got a lot of scores. As our two girls in midfield tired, it was great to see Clíodhna Flynn at centre-forward pulling deep to help out. Our girls at wing-forward and wing-back, Marcella, Mary, Sarah and Becky got through an amount of work up and down the flanks in this half and worked very well together. In fact the quality of our passing was good all through. Dearbhla was called on to make some saves in this period and she never let us down. Geraldine and Ciara were magnificent at the back, completely snuffing out the Annes’ threat. We ran out easy winners. Maeve Doyle, Éadaoin Fitzgerald and Megan Macintosh all came on and made strong contributions.
Full-time score: Shels 7-8; St. Annes : 2-7.
Team: D. Potter ; C. Roche ; A Murphy ; I Keogh ; B Hayes ; G Doolan ; C Corrigan ; S Doyle ; N Doyle ; G McCabe ; M O’ Rourke ; C Flynn ; M Furlong; N O’ Connor ; R Tobin ; M Macintosh ; E Fitzgerald ; M Doyle ; E Byrne ; C Lawless ; L Corrigan.