Village Barn Senior LGF Championship: Mullingar Shamrocks 1-2 Milltown 0-18.
It was a tough evening for our senior LGF team short the injured Anna Jones, and Tara Fagan in the huge Sean Doolin Memorial Park in Milltown against the home team in the Village Barn Senior Championship. However despite the one-sided appearance of the scoreboard the spirit displayed by the players was a huge positive and will serve them well in next week’s vital game with Garrycastle.
Emma Morris in the third minute put Shamrocks ahead for the only time in the game with a neat point before Sarah Dillon took centre stage and delivered a masterpiece of football brilliance. Sarah was in the type of form that made her unmarkable as she displayed the full range of her football skills. Her speed, her movement, her accuracy her playmaking were simply wonderful. She scored four of the first five points and the last two of the half as Milltown established an 0-11 to 0-1 halftime lead. Leanne Slevin scored 0-3 as Grainne Byrne and Kate Whyte added a point each. Shamrocks scoring opportunities were limited as they battled wind and hill. Chloe Smullen’s penalty was well saved by the Milltown keeper Karen Walsh.
Nicole Feery pointed from the restart throw-in and Kate Whyte extended the Milltown total to 13 points. Karen Hegarty added a second point for Shamrocks before Leanne Slevin scored her fourth point of the evening. This point followed form a brilliant piece of defending by Melek Fagan who was unlucky to see her superb block-down rebound to Leanne. Shamrocks enjoyed plenty of possession at this stage but an inability to retain the ball destroyed many opportunities. The Milltown defence was eventually unhinged and Chloe Smullen finished a bout of combined play by blasting to the net for the only goal of the evening. Unfortunately, Rachel Cheever and Annemarie O’Reilly had to spend ten minutes on the sideline at this stage after Vinny Cox produced yellow cards to Rachel and Annemarie. The Shamrocks players exhibited great spirit during the ten minutes with 13 players and with superb defending kept the goal intact. Once again, Katie Kelly impressed between the posts and is fast emerging as a candidate to replace Lauren between the Westmeath posts. Kate Whyte pointed twice and Sarah Dillon pointed before the final whistle with Milltown leading by 0-18 to 1-2.
Mullingar Shamrocks: Katie Kelly; Melek Fagan, Siobhan O’Donnell, Sophie Hegarty; Sinead Sweeney (Jenna Kelly), Chloe Swarbrigg, Annmarie O’Reilly; Mairéad Newman, Rachel Cheevers; Jasmin Haugh (Holly McCormack), Susanna Buckley (Rosie O’Grady), Emma Morris; Karen Hegarty (0-1), Chloe Smullen (1-0) [Aideen Langtry], Jenna Kelly (Zara Corroon).
It was a tough evening for our senior LGF team short the injured Anna Jones, and Tara Fagan in the huge Sean Doolin Memorial Park in Milltown against the home team in the Village Barn Senior Championship. However despite the one-sided appearance of the scoreboard the spirit displayed by the players was a huge positive and will serve them well in next week’s vital game with Garrycastle.
Emma Morris in the third minute put Shamrocks ahead for the only time in the game with a neat point before Sarah Dillon took centre stage and delivered a masterpiece of football brilliance. Sarah was in the type of form that made her unmarkable as she displayed the full range of her football skills. Her speed, her movement, her accuracy her playmaking were simply wonderful. She scored four of the first five points and the last two of the half as Milltown established an 0-11 to 0-1 halftime lead. Leanne Slevin scored 0-3 as Grainne Byrne and Kate Whyte added a point each. Shamrocks scoring opportunities were limited as they battled wind and hill. Chloe Smullen’s penalty was well saved by the Milltown keeper Karen Walsh.
Nicole Feery pointed from the restart throw-in and Kate Whyte extended the Milltown total to 13 points. Karen Hegarty added a second point for Shamrocks before Leanne Slevin scored her fourth point of the evening. This point followed form a brilliant piece of defending by Melek Fagan who was unlucky to see her superb block-down rebound to Leanne. Shamrocks enjoyed plenty of possession at this stage but an inability to retain the ball destroyed many opportunities. The Milltown defence was eventually unhinged and Chloe Smullen finished a bout of combined play by blasting to the net for the only goal of the evening. Unfortunately, Rachel Cheever and Annemarie O’Reilly had to spend ten minutes on the sideline at this stage after Vinny Cox produced yellow cards to Rachel and Annemarie. The Shamrocks players exhibited great spirit during the ten minutes with 13 players and with superb defending kept the goal intact. Once again, Katie Kelly impressed between the posts and is fast emerging as a candidate to replace Lauren between the Westmeath posts. Kate Whyte pointed twice and Sarah Dillon pointed before the final whistle with Milltown leading by 0-18 to 1-2.
Mullingar Shamrocks: Katie Kelly; Melek Fagan, Siobhan O’Donnell, Sophie Hegarty; Sinead Sweeney (Jenna Kelly), Chloe Swarbrigg, Annmarie O’Reilly; Mairéad Newman, Rachel Cheevers; Jasmin Haugh (Holly McCormack), Susanna Buckley (Rosie O’Grady), Emma Morris; Karen Hegarty (0-1), Chloe Smullen (1-0) [Aideen Langtry], Jenna Kelly (Zara Corroon).
