The Village Barn Senior LGF Championship: The Downs 2-8 Mullingar Shamrocks 1-5 

 

A fine display by our senior LGF team on Thursday night but unfortunately The Downs crossed the finishing line with six points to spare. It might have been closer as a few fine scoring opportunities were denied by good goalkeeping and the crossbar. We welcomed back Sophie Hegarty to championship action after a year out with a cruciate injury and Emma Morris as well as Sarah Geoghegan and said goodbye to Lauren McCormack for the moment at least. 

 

A fine outside of the boot effort by Karen Hegarty opened the scoring for Mullingar Shamrocks but immediately from the restart The Downs worked the ball downfield and Niamh Ronan shot past Lauren McCormack for the opening goal of the evening. Great play by Chloe Smullen ended with the ball smashing off the crossbar on its way over for Shamrocks second point. Britney McNamee converted two fine long-range frees while a great pass from Karen Hegarty was collected by Chloe Smullen and pointed. A great save by Shauna Conneely from Chloe was crucial and secured The Downs an interval lead of 1-2 to 0-3. 

 

Another pointed free from a distance by Britney McNamee and one from play by Beth Maguire extended The Downs lead before Chloe Smullen and Anna Jones worked a quick free for Anna to point. Lucy Power responded with a point and over the next ten minutes, Lucy added another 1-1 to the total in what was a significant intervention by the county player. Britney McNamee also pointed before Anna Jones and Karen Hegarty repeated the quick free routine for Anna to point. In the final minutes, Shamrocks attacked and were awarded two penalties. Mairéad Newman was taken down but Karen Hegarty’s shot was well saved by Shauna Conneely and minutes later the goalkeeper saved a second penalty taken by Anna Jones but Anna collected the rebound and goaled in what was the final shot of the game with The Downs leading 2-8 to 1-5. 

 

Mullingar Shamrocks: Lauren McCormack; Rosie O’Grady, Siobhán O’Donnell, Sophie Hegarty; Annemarie O’Reilly, Melek Fagan, Sinead Sweeney; Rachel Cheevers, Anna Jones(1-2); Zara Corroon (Grace Daly), Chloe Smullen (0-2), Emma Morris; Mairéad Newman, Karen Hegarty (0-1), Chloe Swarbrigg (Sarah Geoghegan).