Derry impress against Antrim

Derry impress against Antrim

The third round of the National League (held 24/02/08) brought a repeat of last year’s Ulster Junior final with Derry at home to Antrim. The game was played at a windswept Ballinascreen, where Derry with an almost full panel of players (except Victoria Mallett, Ashlene Kealey and Louise Glass) overcame a strong and often physical Antrim team.

Antrim, playing with a strong wind at their back, opened the scoring with a fine point from distance, but Derry replied with a well worked point after 12 passes from the boot of Shauna McCallion. Antrim scored a second point in the 14th minute, but Derry replied with 3 goals, one from Aine McCusker and two from Shauna McCallion. This brought the scores to Derry 3-2 Antrim 0-2. Both teams scored 2 further points to leave the halftime score 3-4 to 0-4 in Derry’s favour.

The second half started with Derry setting siege to the Antrim goal and scoring 4 unanswered points. It took 14 minutes of the second half for Antrim to break down the solid Derry defence and scored two fine points. Antrim, now on the attack were in full flight and it took a spectacular save from Breigeen Cassidy in the Derry nets to deprive Antrim from a goal which would have brought them right back into the game. The Derry attack kept up the work rate and scored a further 3 points without reply. A late goal by Kathy Conway and a point from Shauna McCallion completed the Derry scoring, while Antrim eventually scored a consolation goal in the 60th minute. The final score was Derry 4-11 Antrim 1-6.
Derry’s next game is away to Wicklow on Sun 2nd March 2008

The Derry Team: Breigeen Cassidy, Emma Kelly, Nuala O’Hagan, Nuala Doherty, Dervla McMaster, Clare Lagan, Aisling Moore, Mary-Angela Conway, Clodagh Gormley (0-2), Julie McLaughlin, Ursula Mullan, Shauna McCallion (2-3), Kathy Conway (1-5), Aine McCloskey (1-0) and Shauna Vallely (0-1)
Subs: Una Harkin for Emma Kelly, Michelle McAteer for Julie McLaughlin, Mairead McCann for Ursula Mullan, Natasha McEldowney for Shauna Vallely, Joanne Devine for Aisling Moore.