Ladies Senior Football Championship, Relegation Play-off: Mullingar Shamrocks 2-9 Kilbeggan Shamrocks 2-6.
Mullingar Shamrocks senior ladies retained their senior status with a hard-earned but fully deserved victory over their fellow Shamrocks from Kilbeggan at The Downs on Saturday morning.
With the injured Karen Hegarty keeping a close watch from the sideline, wind-assisted Mullingar quickly established a 0-4 to 0-0 lead in the early stages with Honor McNamara and Emma Morris sharing the points. Kilbeggan at this stage missed a few good scoring opportunities especially from frees but made amends with a quick free that caught the Mullingar defenders off-guard and the resultant goal reduced the deficit to the minimum. Another Emma Morris pointed free and an excellent Honor McNamara point followed. Honor’s point was a bit special as it resulted from a fine bout of combined play that was started by Honor herself from a side-line kick before she looped around to provide the finishing touch. There was better to come in the twenty-third minute when Honor introduced a rarely used skill to the game when she rocketed a left-footed drop-kick to the Kilbeggan net and established a six-point lead (1-6 to 1-0); much of the hard work involved in creating this goal belonged to Melek Fagan. Kilbeggan added two points before half-time to leave them in a strong position at the interval with wind advantage to follow.
Gemma Kerrigan was introduced for the second half and the switch paid immediate dividends as she secured possession and her great delivery was won by Lisa Burke and Shamrocks’ long-serving player used all her experience to score the most vital of goals. Sarah Guilfoyle responded with two points from play before Emma Morris hit another fine point from play (2-7 to 1-4). It is worth recording that in the fortieth minute Emma was wide from a Shamrocks free: it was the first wide of the day for the Mullingar girls. Great defending by Carole Finch earned the full-back a free but Carole wasn’t best pleased at the manner of the foul and gently threw the ball at her opponent to alert her to the fact; this is strictly against the ladies’ code and the reversal of the free secured another point for Sarah Guilfoyle. Another fine piece of play ended with a Gemma Kerrigan point and after fifty minutes Shamrocks held a 2-8 to 1-6 lead. High fielding by Lisa Burke and a superb pass set-up a great goal-scoring opportunity for Niamh Spellman but Eimear Fox in the Kilbeggan goal saved well. The sin-bin rule reduced Mullingar Shamrocks to fourteen players for the final ten minutes as Michelle Morris was shown the yellow card. A Kilbeggan goal heaped the pressure on the Mullingar ladies but a final Emma Morris point from a free (and a yellow card for a Kilbeggan player) secured the Mullingar Shamrocks victory.
This was Mullingar Shamrocks finest performance of the season that started last December when training began with team manager Davy Miller. This was a great team performance as the Shamrocks women played with great intensity, with the defense in particular superb led by a great half-back line of Tara Fagan, Niamh Spellman and Áine Melody. In the forwards Emma Morris, Gemma Kerrigan and Lisa Burke led the way but on this occasion Honor McNamara was the special one. Well done to all concerned.
Mullingar Shamrocks: Lauren McCormack; Melek Fagan, Carole Finch, Michelle Morris; Tara Fagan, Niamh Spellman, Áine Melody; Anna Jones and Michelle Buckley; Sophie Hegarty, Emma Morris (0-5), Casey McDermott; Honor McNamara (1-3), Lisa Burke (1-0), and Ciara Morris (Gemma Kerrigan, 0-1).
