Dublin Claim Under 21 Aisling McGing title

 

Dublin 6-10

Meath 1-08

 

It was a red letter day for Dublin in Clane as they produced a superb display against their neighbours, Meath to claim the Under 21 Aisling McGing title.

Meath entered the final in confident form having proven a match for this Dublin side as they progressed through the age grades and with 15 minutes gone they were proving to be good value for the billing. It was Dublin that opened the scoring through their senior star, Carla Rowe’s well taken free, two in a row from Bridgetta Lynch and Kate Byrne with a reply from Sarah McCaffrey left the sides level but when Laura Dempsey scored her first from play to give Meath the lead it looked like a surprise could have been on the cards.

Dublin, however, had other ideas and it was Nicole Owens who landed the first decisive blow as she seized on a loose ball to beautifully loft the ball over the Meath goalkeeper and put Dublin 2 points ahead. This was to prove to be a devastating period for Meath as Dublin added a further two goals, with a superb run and finish from Carla Rowe followed shortly after by a neat finish from Sarah McCaffrey all within the space of a minute. Rowe added another pointed free but Meath responded with two points from Sinead Coyle as the Royal’s refused to give up but they suffered another hammer blow as Nicole Owens converted a penalty that she had earned herself and at the same time Meath lost their full forward, Laura Dempsey to an arm injury. Owen’s goal left Meath with a mountain to climb as the half time score saw Meath trailing 4-03 to 0-05.

Niamh Rickard kicked the first point of the second half to extend Dublin’s lead with a response coming from Bridgetta Lynch. Carla Rowe scored another point from a placed ball before Meath’s Emma Troy burst forward from defence to score one of the best scores of the match. Meath were showing real signs of getting back into the match when they earned a penalty; however, Áine Lynch dragged her spot kick wide of the post. Emma McDonagh burst forward from the back to score a lovely point from play for Dublin before Aoife Kavanagh and Áine Bennett traded points but all hope for Meath was lost as Siobhan Woods kicked her first point followed immediately by a wonderful goal from Niamh Rickard for Dublin. To their credit Meath refused to give up as Bridgetta Lynch rattled the ball to the Dublin net but they now trailed by 12 points with less than 10 minutes to go.

Captain, Siobhan Woods scored Dublin’s 6th goal with Molly Lamb getting the reward of a fine point for Dublin after producing a brilliant performance. That was to prove to be the final score of the match as Dublin recorded their second emphatic win in the space of a week to be named as the 2014 Aisling McGing Under 21 champions with Carla Rowe collecting the Player of the Match accolade.

Dublin: C. Trant, O. Carey, L Collins, L Caffrey, E McDonagh, D. Murphy, M Byrne, M Lamb, S. McCaffrey, M. Lohan, A. Kavanagh, N. Rickard, N Owens, S. Woods (capt), C. Rowe.

Meath:  S. Powderly, A. Guy, O. Duff, N. Lister, L. Bagnall, M Peel, E. Troy, M O’Shaughnessy (capt.), K Byrne, M. Downey, S. Ennis, S. Cleary, B. Lynch, L. Dempsey, Á. Benett.

Dublin Scorers: C. Rowe (1-03, 3 frees) , S. McCaffrey (1-01), N. Owens (2-00, 1 pen), E. McDonagh (0-01), A. Kavanagh (0-01), N. Rickard (1-01), S. Woods (1-01), M. Lamb (0-01)

Meath Scorers: B. Lynch (1-01), K. Byrne (0-01), L. Dempsey (0-01), S. Coyle (0-02, 2 frees), E. Troy (0-01), A. Bennett (0-01)