U-13 Ladies Footballers win Division 1 League Title

After numerous text and phone calls, Mobhi Road at 7.15 on Thursday the 21^st of May was finally agreed for the winner takes all match against Na Fianna. Having played the same opposition at home only 3 weeks earlier in the first round games, we knew we were going to get nothing easy in our quest for Division 1 league glory.

As the girls rolled into Mobhi Road, the whispers of ”how was Rebecca’s hand”, “how was ‘Cora’s back”, “how was Roisin’s hand”, “is Aiso limping”, was not the perfect pre match banter that we needed. Credit to the girls though, when the official health check was done, everyone reported 100% fit, and raring to go.

The match could not start quick enough for the girls and they raced into a 3 point lead. However, Na Fianna started to settle and after a few wides from our girls, they started to peg back the lead, and drew level at 3 points each, with 15 minutes gone. With Ali Dunne in goal and the full back line of Rebecca Flanagan, Aiso Aikhionbare and Bella Fay as solid as always, they didn’t give an inch to their opponents and put in some excellent blocks aswell to deny certain scores. At this stage, the half back line of Roisin Egan, Aisling Kavanagh and Faye Murphy were starting to get a grip on things, and worked the ball very well with the midfield pairing of Caitlin Maguire and Aoife Whelan. Faye in particular was leading the way, with what always seemed like an effortless performance (capped off by a great roam upfield in the second half to pop the ball over the bar). Surely the rumours that she was also carrying an injury into the match could not have been true!!! For the last 10 minutes of the half, Lucan dominated proceedings and went in at the break 8 points to 3 ahead. It wasn’t for the lack a trying that the green flag hadn’t been raised in Lucan’s favour in the first half, as the Na Fianna goalie pulled off a host of great saves.

Fully refreshed after the break, and with Lily O’Reilly and Carla Wynne now on up front for Leah Keating and Cora O’Toole who had worked tirelessly in the first half, the girls were ready for the biggest 30 minutes of their young Ladies Football career.

The second half was pretty much a carbon copy of the first. The non stop Aoife Coffey while wearing the No. 11, seemed to be everywhere, and was giving great support to the tireless Whelo and Caitilin in midfield. Alannah Cassells and Lily also in the half forward line, linked up very well with the full forward line of Carla Wynne, Abby Shiels and Charmaine Gahan, who all put serious pressure on the Na Fianna defence from their kick outs, and clocked up some well worked scores. Abby seemed to have hit every part of the goal except the back of the net, and unbelievably Lucan didn’t raise one green flag in the 60 minutes, as a result of both a bit of misfortune, and also some great goalkeeping. However, the saying of ‘take your points and the goals will come (or maybe they won’t!!) was what the girls were working off, and they ran into a 12 points to 5 lead with 15 minutes gone in the second half. At this stage Na Fianna were awarded a penalty, and while the sideline waited in hope, Bela who was now in goal, calmly palmed the shot out to the left, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Credit to Na Fianna though, they kept plugging away, and smacked in a cracking goal, to make it an “interesting” last 5 minutes. Cool as you like though, the girls didn’t panic, and went back down the field to clock up a few reassurance scores.

The final whistle eventually came, with the girls running out 0-16 to 1-5 winners, to claim the Division 1 League title. While not part of the action on the night, the other important members of the squad also deserve a mention, as this league was won over 9 tough games. Well done to Ciara McGrath and Aisling Kenna who were unavailable on the night. Also to Ellie Larkin who is currently out injured, and we hope to see fully fit again very soon, and to Aoibheann Higgins who was involved with the squad at the start of the season.

These are a great bunch of girls who have been working nonstop for the last 5 years, and they got their just rewards last night. Thanks also to the parents for their ongoing support, and also their flexibility in being available for this game, which seemed to take an age to re-schedule!!!!

Good luck also to our second U-13 team, who play their last league match this week. If they win, they will get the runners up spot in their division, which would also be a great achievement for this hard working group of girls.