Meath Ladies U-13 Div. 1 Shield Final.
Seneschalstown 2-6 Royal Gaels 3-1
For the second year in succession, Seneschalstown Girls u13’s are Meath LGFA Div. 1 Shield winners after defeating Royal Gaels in a hard-fought encounter in Dunganny.
Meath Ladies U-13 Div. 1 Shield Final.
Seneschalstown 2-6 Royal Gaels 3-1
For the second year in succession, Seneschalstown Girls u13’s are Meath LGFA Div. 1 Shield winners after defeating Royal Gaels in a hard-fought encounter in Dunganny.
On a bright crisp morning, Seneschalstown took to the field without the Murray twins who had an earlier encounter in Dublin. The game started well for the Dunshaughlin outfit who had the ball in the net in the very first minute and increased their lead by the fourth minute. In the sixth minute the Murray twins were introduced but a second Gaels goal on eight minutes had the Gaels well in control.
The Furze Girls were finding it hard to settle and it took until midway thru the first half to register their first score which was a point from the boot of Robyn Murray. This score seemed to settle the Furze Girls, but some wayward passing and shooting was restricting their progress on the scoreboard. However, with two minutes of the half left, following good work from Nicola Mongey whose centre found Robyn Murray, the ball nestled in the Gaels net for a most vital score to leave the Seneschalstown girls trailing 2-01 to 1-01 at the break.
The half time chat was very focused and the Seneschalstown girls came out for the second period with a “pep in their step” and within the first minute Kelly Stafford had reduced the arrears with a fine point from play. However, it took another thirteen minutes before the next score arrived.
In the interim the Seneschalstown rear-guard of Amy Kennedy, Tiana Kyle, Molly Keating, Meadhbh Hickey, Charlie Murray, Ali Clarke were repelling every attack from the Dunshaughlin girls backed up by Carley Lynch who was making her competitive debut the posts. Midfield duo of Robyn Murray and Megan Clarke were having a ding dong battle with their direct opponents. The forward line made up of various combinations of Tara Traynor, Kelly Stafford, Chara Cowley, Abby Hewitt, Lauren McGuirk, Nicola Mongey, Claire Finnegan, Katie McDonnell, Holly Knowles and Sophie Sharp were getting more possession and it was Traynor who got the all-important goal to put the girls in blue and gold in front for the first time on the three-quarter hour mark.
Indeed, it was Traynor again who increased the advantage to two with just over ten minutes remaining. Charlie Murray then got in on the scoring act with a point after the Gaels keeper did well push Murrays shot over the bar and then twin sister Robyn tagged on another point to increase the lead to four points with eight minutes remaining. However, the Gaels girls were not about to go down without a fight and with six minutes remaining scored their third goal to cut the gap back to the minimum.
They had some further chances as well and it took some last ditch defending and fine sweeping by keeper Lynch to keep the lead intact. In the last minute Traynor tagged on the last score from a free and shortly afterward the final whistle blew ending a titanic struggle against a very gallant Royal Gaels outfit.
Afterwards Meath County Board Chairman Fearghal Harney presented the Shield to joint Captains Megan Clarke and Tara Traynor.
Panel: Carley Lynch, Amy Kennedy, Tianna Kyle, Katie McDonnell, Meadhbh Hickey, Molly Keating, Charley Murray (0-1), Aly Clarke, Megan Clarke, Tara Traynor (1-2), Kelly Stafford (0-1), Robyn Murray (1-2), Holly Knowles, Claire Finnegan, Nicola Mongey, Lauren McGuirk, Abby Hewitt, Sophie Sharp, Chara Cowley.
