U16 Ladies
Rose Hotel Division 1 Round 5
Ballymacelligott 2:05 v Austin Stacks 4:06
Second week in a row at home in Ballymacelligott, but not a great night for football, with consistent mist making underfoot conditions difficult.
Up against our local rivals Austin Stacks, who handed out a right beating to us two years ago the pressure was on our girls to measure up.
Stacks jumped into a strong early lead with 1-3 on board before we got our first point from a Ciara Palmer free, by the water break it was 1-4 to 0-1. Alyssa Leen O’Shea added a further point but another 1-2 was scored by Stacks, however our girls had put in a far more improved performance and were very unlucky with a few goal and point chances.
Our defence was outstanding over the whole game with Abby Leahy outstanding in the left corner back spot and Cathy Palmer very effective outside her. Lorna Daly was getting the better of two or three different players that were tried on her. Grainne Galvin and Alyssa Leen O’Shea were dominating the centre spots and Kate Collins working very hard on the right flank, making defense splitting runs forward. Where we got caught was in turning over the ball too easily in the opponent’s side of the field, with 2-4 conceded from turnovers in the first half.
The second half was all Ballymac, with the girls putting in a massive performance. Two quick points from Rachel Creedon was followed by a breakaway goal by Stacks. But what a response from our girls with two goals, one each from Emer Curran and Niamh Lynch, who were causing all sorts of problems to the Stacks defense. Stacks did reply with a breakaway goal. Kerry Hennessy made a couple of great saves in the dying minutes, ably assisted by Emma Leen and the hard working Roisin Rahilly. Our scores were finished off by a Grainne Galvin point from a free, won by herself after a great passing move up the field by our girls. Shonagh Griffin worked really hard in midfield alongside Roisin Rahilly, with our half forward line of Ciara Palmer, Keelin Enright, Ella Quirke, Rachel Griffin and Charlotte Geary got on a lot of ball linking between backs and forwards. The inside line of Jill Quirke, Anna Collins, Emma Leen (Joint Captain), Roisin Raggett, Rachel Creedon, Niamh Lynch and Emer Curran (Joint Captain) converted our chances and were really unlucky with a number of chances.
On next to our County Division 1 semi-final, which is most likely away to Southern Gaels.