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Donaghmore / Ashbourne vs St Ultans

Date:        31 March 2009
Venue:        Sean Newman Park
Time:        7:00 PM
Referee:    Michael Ryan

HT    Donaghmore /Ashbourne    2-4    St Ultan’s    1-4
FT    Donaghmore / Ashbourne    3-10    St Ultan’s    2-8

Team:

Ciara Dixon, Aine Ni Mealoid, Grainne Field, Aoife O’ Rourke, Aideen Kenny, Maire O’ Shaughnessy (0,1) , Catriona O’ Shaughnessy (0,3) , Jenny Moran (0,1) , Mary-Kate Benville, Anna Reidy, Sorcha Murtagh, Eva Mc Neilis (0,1) , Alison Leahy, Kyna O’ Connor (0,2) , Hayley Lawton (3,2) (1 penalty ) . Subs Lizzy Lynch, Aisling Doherty, Lisa Macken.

There is never any room for complacency when meeting St Ultan’s, as they are a strong team with very fast, tough  players and will battle to the bitter end.

The match was very fast and fluid from the very start, with Donaghmore / Ashbourne winning the throw-in , and Catriona scoring our first point inside a few minutes. We won the kick-out, but lost the ball again in the raging  midfield battle,  fortunately Ultan’s were kept out  far enough that they could only score a point. We won the resulting ball and Hayley scored first a point, then the first goal of the clash. We succeeded in keeping play in the opposition half,  and followed up with a point each for Jenny and Catriona.  St Ultan’s regained possession, and laid siege to our goal. There was a goal-line scuffle where both our goalie Ciara and the ball were bundled into the net, but the goal stood. This boosted the St Ultan’s girls, but in contrast, we lost our shape a bit . St Ultan’s started to get a foothold on the match again,  where they scored three unanswered points before Hayley stopped the slippage by scoring her second goal.

The game started smartly after the break, as Sean Newman Park has no lights and nobody wanted to play in the dark !  We won the kick-out, and got the ball into their half,  where we were awarded a 45 . Nothing came of this, however, and  action moved to our end line, where there was heroic defending by Aine, Aoife, Sorcha and Aideen – in fact a number of our midfielders also tracked back to withstand the onslaught. Aine suffered an  injury and Aisling came on in her place. Mark and Stephen  re-worked the team, Aisling going into her usual forward slot an all the other girls moving back.  The  Donash girls got come good passing moves together,  with Hayley and Eva getting a point each.  There was a brief rally from St Ultan’s where they managed to get a point,  but then the initiative moved back to us, with  our midfielders and forwards saturating the St Ultan’s  half. We were awarded a penalty , which Hayley coolly converted for her third goal. Lizzy came on for Jenny, and we  then had a very good period in the match where  we clocked up four unanswered points, one each for Maire and Catriona and two for Kyna.

St Ultan’s, inevitably with all their considerable experience,  kept coming back at us and scored first a point, then a goal-line scramble at our goal resulted in an opposition penalty, which they put in the net. This portion of the game was marred by injuries,  one for St Ultans and an injury to Aoife,  for whom Lisa came on into defence.  At this late stage, St Ultan’s were still keeping up their attack and virtually the entire team defended the ball, limiting them to shots from a distance.  Thankfully, only two attempts  went over the bar .  At this stage, Mick blew the final whistle – Donaghmore /Ashbourne 3-10, St Ultan’s 2-8.

This was the Senior Ladies third win from three games, with Ultan’s being the hardest match to date. We could never rest on our laurels as we knew they would keep us under pressure until the very last. A very tight game, but one in which our Ladies prevailed !
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 16 June 2009 15:11 )