What a match! What a comeback! These girls don’t surrender easily as they showed in their extra-time semi-final victory and their resilience was tested to the maximum on Tuesday evening as they faced a team infused with the great battling spirit of The Downs.
It didn’t look great at the start as The Downs had the ball in the Shamrocks net with their first attack courtesy of the sublime Laura Finnegan. Minutes later Lauren Deasy had the ball in the net for a second time and Abigail Muldoon pointed. Only a timely advance by goalkeeper Emily Forde prevented a third goal. Orla Egerton pointed a free and after 12 minutes, Mullingar Shamrocks trailed by 2-2 to 0-0 after squandering a few good scoring chances to add to the challenge facing the girls for the next 45 minutes or so. They went on to outscore The Downs 3-10 to 2-3 over the next 50 minutes.
Alexa Gavigan fired the recovery with a run that covered three quarters of the pitch before combining with Caoimhe Farrell to set up Aya Hacini who blasted to the net for Shamrocks opening goal. Alexa pointed and the gap didn’t seem so daunting. However the respite was short lived as Laura Finnegan got her hand to a free dropping into the goalmouth and guided it to the back of the net and Abigail Muldoon pointed a free and we were back to square one and trailing by eight points once again. Moya Kilmartin marked her introduction to the game with a goal and another great Alexa Gavigan run ended with a point after a brilliant piece of Ellie O’ Donnell defending. A superb Emma Conneely save prevented Moya from scoring her second goal just before Ken Gunning blew his whistle for half-time with the scoreboard reading 3-3 to 2-2.
Shamrocks attacked from the restart and Aya Hacini’s second point cut the deficit to a goal. The score inspired The Downs who dominated the next fifteen minutes or so. Laura Finnegan and Lauren Deasy pointed and Lauren Finnegan sliced through the Shamrocks defence for a fourth goal to extend the lead to eight points (4-5 to 2-3). This proved to be The Downs final score.
And then, the recovery began. The Moya and Alexa double act struck again. Moya pointed a free and Alexa pointed from play. Florence Geelon kicked our third point of the half and the scoreboard looked a bit better reading 4-5 to 2-6. It looked better a few minutes later when Moya Kilmartin struck for her second goal.
The gap was cut to two points as Shamrocks driven by Keela Doran, Sara Hannify, Ellie O’ Donnell and Alannah Burke poured forward. It might all have ended at this stage but a fine Emily Forde kept the game alive. Alexa Gavigan was now playing in the forward line and driving forward at every opportunity. Aya Hacini pointed to reduce the deficit to the minimum as the game entered what transpired to be six minutes of lost time. From the restart Shamrocks gained possession and were awarded a free – one of those difficult ones in front of goal and about 30 metres out. Moya Kilmartin retained her composure, the technique remained intact and Moya slotted the equaliser – possibly, the most important score of the night as a miss at this stage would have been a killer. For the first time since the first minute, the sides were level. Alexa won possession from the restart, found Moya with a pass which she converted for the lead score after 64 minutes. Shamrocks were rampant at this stage and Moya Kilmartin completed the scoring for a memorable victory.
There were great individual performances but this was essentially a team victory with all nineteen players playing a great part. We remember too, Eabha Moran and Abi Matthews who were ever-present all year but missed this final due to holidays. Both Eabha and Abi put in superb performacnes in the extra-time semi-final win against St Paul's in KInnegad.
Congrats to all involved and especially to the Management Team led by joint managers Carole Finch and Emma Morris supported by Kieran McCormack, Ailish McGovern, Niamh Spellman and Lucy Maguire. Carole, Emma and the team insist on high standards and are utterly professional and meticulous in their preparation, as does our Under-14 management team led by Lisa Burke. It does make a difference.
Judging on the quality of football served up on Tuesday evening in this Division 3 final, Westmeath LGF is in a good place – but we were aware of this anyway.
And the green and white colours were flying in Abbeydorney on Tuesday night.
Mullingar Shamrocks: Emily Forde, Layla Dowd (Keela Doran) , Ellie O’Donnell, Saoirse Clinton; Robyn Byrne (Elsa Bird), Alannah Burke, Maeve Shaw (Orla Nohilly); Alexa Gavigan (0-3), Sara Hannify; Florence Geelon (0-1), Caoimhe Farrell; Sarah Cosgrave, Aya Hacini (1-2), Aoibh McCann (Moya Kilmartin, 2-4). Other Panellists: Suzi Corroon, Amy Devaney, Alice Geelon, Aida Glover, Emily Maguire, Kara McKeown, Ece Ozdemir, Malika Syed Shah.
Fogra:
Fogra:
Just came across an old Facebook posting on an old Mullingar Shamrocks Facebook site dated 17 July 2015.
It read 'Best of luck to Westmeath Ladies this weekend in their Leinster final versus Dublin. Hopefully the ladies will get revenge for last week. Extra special best wishes to our own team mates on the panel Carole Finch, Karen Hegarty, Emma Morris and Niamh Spellman'.
Three of our team management from last night and it is believed that Karen Hegarty is also still involved in the Mullingar Shamrocks Club.
Aren't Mullingar Shamrocks so lucky to have such wonderful people still volunteering their services and talent over ten years later.
