2015 U-18 Girls Minor Semi-Final
Simonstown 4-07 Seneschalstown 3-03
On Monday evening the 25th April the Seneschalstown U-18 girls took to the field of play in Dunganny to endeavour to reach the 2015 Division 1 Championship final. Standing in their way was their near neighbours Simonstown whom they had meet previously at this stage in 2014.
2015 U-18 Girls Minor Semi-Final
Simonstown 4-07 Seneschalstown 3-03
On Monday evening the 25th April the Seneschalstown U-18 girls took to the field of play in Dunganny to endeavour to reach the 2015 Division 1 Championship final. Standing in their way was their near neighbours Simonstown whom they had meet previously at this stage in 2014.
Playing with a chilling gale force wind on their backs, Simonstown got off to an excellent start scoring a goal and three points to no reply. Seneschalstown clearly had their work cut out for themselves and to combat the conditions they played the ball smartly out of defence and managed to score two points off the boot of Amy Gilsenan. Roisin Commons moved to centre field to assist the ever industrial Stacey Grimes and Kiah Geraghty and with the defence team applying pressure on opponents Simonstown were restricted to scoring a further two goals and two points before half time.
This could have been much more but for the brave efforts and tight marking of the defence lead by Aisling Taaffe and some excellent saves pulled off by Grainne Gordon in the goals. A feature of the defence was the number of timely block downs performed by Orla McMahon, Laura wall and Grace Cahalane and the ball carrying skills of Shona Loughran and Captain Natasha Mullen.
Half time score: Simonstown 3-05 Seneschalstown 0-02
The second half was going to take a huge effort from Seneschalstown to work their way back into this game and as in the past the girls were not going to disappoint. Roisin Commons knocked over an early point and steadily Seneschalstown upped the tempo and began to break through the Simonstown defence. With Aoife Lenihan and Crystal Delamere working hard on the wings, the full forward line of Kelly Smith, Katie Geraghty and now with Amy Gilsenan on the edge of square possibilities began to show and before long Gilsenan had rattled the back of the net twice.
Simonstown had responded by dropping players back into their defence and crowded the area and scoring became very difficult. A young Sorcha Gough was introduced to the scene and before long she made her mark in this game with a beautifully weighted lobbing ball from the left, floated over the head of the Simonstown keeper and nestled in the back of the net. Another girl to impress was Leanne Clarke who showed great spirit and determination when she replaced the injured Laura Wall.
As time ran out Simonstown had battened down the hatches and were not to be undone on the night. In fairness they were the stronger team and were deserving of their win and full credit to them. But as in many games in the past this team of girls from Seneschalstown have filled our hearts with pride with their style of play, commitment and positive attitude to playing football at the highest level in this competition. We wish them well and success in the coming years and look forward to seeing them take to the field again.
Seneschalstown: Grainne Gordon, Orla McMahon, Aisling Taaffe, Laura Wall, Shona Loughran, Natasha Mullen, Grace Cahalane, Kiah Geraghty, Stacey Grimes, Aoife Lenihan, Amy Gilsenan (2-02), Chrystal Delamere, Katie Geraghty, Roisin Commons (0-01), Kelly Smith.
Subs: Sorcha Gough (1-00) for Katie Geraghty, Leanne Clarke for Laura Wall, Catherine Smith, Laura Mc Donnell, Shauna Gordon.
