Last minute major leaves honours even

Mullingar Shamrocks 2-10, Coralstown/Kinnegad 2-10

By Paul Doolin

The Ladies senior football championship opened in dramatic fashion in Springfield on Thursday evening last with this entertaining game between the home side and last year’s Intermediate champions, Coralstown/Kinnegad.

While the game lacked a little in quality, it certainly made up for in intensity and excitement with both side contemplating afterward how they didn’t win it. It was an hour of peaks and troughs with each side having a period of domination and then having to defend, where both sets of defenders were excellent, and where clear scoring chances came at a premium. Therefore a draw was the fairest result and gives both teams the chance to tweak and improve for the remaining rounds.

Shamrocks opened the scoring with a free from Anna Jones and dominated the early exchanges, but were guilty of some poor wides and indeed butchered goal chances, and points from Kiara Giles and Shannon Lyons turned the tide in Kinnegad's favour as they upped their game. Karen Hegarty levelled for the home side after a great run and pass by Anna Jones, but they also hit the crossbar and kicked some very poor wides. Kinnegad took control with three in-a-row from Andrea Goggins, Emer Fogarty and Claire Taaffe, each well-constructed and finished. However, they failed to continue that momentum and press home their advantage.

Shamrocks got the break they needed on 21 minutes when a long-range effort from Honor McNamara somehow managed to evaded everyone and nestle in the back of the net. Kinnegad lost Fogarty shortly afterwards to injury and it seemed to unsettle them as goal chances by McNamara and Holly McCormack were spurned by Shamrocks. The home side were now in the ascendency and pressed that advantage as it came to the break with Hegarty pointing a beauty. There were further scores from Grace Daly, after a super team move, and Zara Corroon, with a wonderful solo effort, and at the short whistle Shamrocks led by 1-5 to 0-5.

Kinnegad needed a fast start and they got it with quick scores on the resumption form Andrea Goggins and a Kiara Giles free, and in truth they possibly should have scored more as they also a goal chance, but an Anna Jones free kept Shamrocks just out of reach. Another Giles free and a super score from Emer Fogarty, who resumed the field shortly after the restart, levelled the game, but again Shamrocks retorted with a poorly conceded Jones free.

Kinnegad then pounced with the move of the match starting on their own 21-yard line and worked superbly down the field where Goggins' shot came back off the crossbar, and waiting to tap to the net was Aoife McGrath. Jones replied with two frees, but Kiara Giles bisected them with a free to Kinnegad. Then the Reds had a double whammy with yellow cards for Maeve Walsh and Tori Coyne, and Shamrocks sensed victory with Jones levelling form two frees, before a superb move saw Chloe Smullen net a quite brilliant goal. That score seemed to have settled the game once and for all.

Kinnegad were determined not to let that happen and drove forward, but were being kept out by a resolute Shamrocks defence until, in the 63rd minute, a Kira Giles free seemed to evade everyone in the shamrocks rearguard and Aoife McGrath tapped to and empty net for her second major. That proved a crucial score that levelled the game as the whistle was about to blow and the two sides had to settle for a share of the spoils.

Scorers - Mullingar Shamrocks: Anna Jones 0-6 (all frees), Honor McNamara and Chloe Smullen 1-0 each, Karen Hegarty 0-2, Zara Corroon and Grace Daly 0-1 each.

Coralstown Kinnegad: Aoife McGrath 2-0, Kiara Giles 0-4 (3 frees), Emer Fogarty and Andrea Goggins 0-2 each, Shannon Lyons and Claire Taaffe 0-1 each.

Teams

Mullingar Shamrocks: Katie Kelly, Melek Fagan, Annemarie O’Reilly, Rosie O’Grady, Susanna Buckley, Chloe Swarbrigg, Jodi Aherne, Mairead Newman, Anna Jones, Zara Corroon, Karen Hegarty, Holly McCormack, Grace Daly, Honor McNamara, Chloe Smullen. Sub: Clara Thornton for O’Grady (41 mins).

Coralstown Kinnegad: Jenny Doyle, Aine Brannock, Amie Giles, Maeve Walsh, Aileen Murtagh, Tori Coyne, Laura Lyons, Shannon Lyons, Emer Fogarty, Aoife McGrath, Claire Taaffe, Emma Coloe, Therese Walsh, Kiara Giles and Andrea Goggins. Subs: Donna Kiernan for Gogarty (24 mins), Gogarty for Therese Walsh (37 mins).

Referee: Paul McCaughey, Milltown.