Narrow win gets ladies back on track
Meath 2-10, Sligo 3-6
Meath's Elaine Duffy had her shooting boots on against Sligo in the Ladies NFL Div 2 on Sunday.
At a time when confidence was at a low ebb following last week's drubbing by Kildare, Meath bounced back in decent fashion to secure their first brace of Ladies NFL Div 2 points with a narrow victory over visitors Sligo at Pairc Tailteann on Sunday.
After enduring a difficult start to her senior inter-county career at centre-back against Kildare, Oldcastle youngster and Meath Chronicle/Cusack Hotels Young Sports Personality of the Year Kellie Allen showed her true class as she revelled in her new role at full-forward grabbing both goals.
Dardis opted to re-shuffle his pack following the Kildare game. He moved last week's leading scorer, Jenny Rispin to centre-back and placed Allen at full-forward where she received magnificent support from Elaine Duffy and Bridgetta Lynch.
Allen and Lynch were both part of Eamonn Murray's All-Ireland winning u-16 side last year and they are already making a significant impression on the senior stage.
However, it wasn't a two-player performance as Meath improved significantly with Ger Doherty, Mary Sheridan, Ciara Dempsey and Aedin Murray also producing outstanding displays to help stifle the surprisingly lively Sligo girls.
The fact that there were only three goals in the opening period is remarkable given the amount of goalmouth scrambles and near misses there were. Sligo goalkeeper Emma Cullen produced a number of majestic saves and denied Allen a bagful of goals, while the Meath defence were also at their best to deny their visitors more scores.
Allen was the thorn in the Sligo defence. She netted twice in a two minute spell in the opening quarter to help Meath overcome their poor start and boost them to a 2-0 to 1-2 lead.
Sligo had looked capable of continuing where Kildare left off the previous week as Nicola Foley netted before Allen's brace. Irene Munnelly made a fine stop to deny Stephanie O'Reilly, but once Meath settled they were by far the better side and fully merited their victory.
Doherty, Lynch and Duffy stretched Meath's lead to 2-3 to 1-4 at the break, but the Royal County must have been nervous because they had wasted several decent goal scoring opportunities.
Doherty and Duffy extended the lead to 2-7 to 1-4 after the resumption, but then Sligo responded with goals from O'Reilly and Foley restoring parity, 3-5 to 2-8, with 10 minutes remaining.
Instead of panicking, Meath settled back into the game with closing scores from Duffy and Rispin giving them the deserved victory that will do wonders for their confidence ahead of the next round against Donegal.
Meath - Irene Munnelly; Aine Fagan, Aedin Murray, Maria Kealy; Ciara Dempsey, Jenny Rispin (0-1, free), Therese Cosgrave; Mary Sheridan, Eve Wardick; Shauna Bennett, Stephanie Byrne (0-1), Ger Doherty (0-3); Elaine Duffy (0-4, three frees), Kellie Allen (2-0), Bridgetta Lynch (0-1). Subs - Vivienne McCormack for Wardick half-time, Orla Sheridan for Byrne 40 mins, Deirdre Flynn for Lynch 59m.
Sligo - E Cullen; J Mulligan, C Kennedy, E Flanagan; C Doyle, R Goodwin, F May; B Byrne, S O'Sullivan; A Gormley (0-1), N Gormley (0-3, two frees), N Foley (2-1); E Codd, S McTiernan, S O'Reilly (1-0). Subs - A Mosten (0-1) for Gormley half-time.
Referee - Gary Owen McMahon (Dublin).
Post a Comment