7th Heaven for AIB All-Ireland champions Kilkerrin-Clonberne in Connacht

AIB Connacht LGFA Senior Club Championship Final

Kilkerrin-Clonberne 1-17 Westport 1-8

Kilkerrin’s Clonberne’s provincial hegemony got its sternest test in many years when the AIB All-Ireland champions won their seventh successive Connacht senior title this afternoon.

Despite seeing their lead narrowed to two points by Westport’s only goal in the 32nd minute, the Galway ladies had the class to push ahead and outscore their Mayo challengers  Westport 1-3 to 0-0 in the last quarter.

Even after losing their captain Louise Ward to the sin-bin, Willie Ward’s women never lost track of their mission and re-shaped their defence to grind Westport’s dangerous attack to a near-halt.

Kilkerrin-Clonberne’s nine-point winning margin was their tightest in any Connacht final since they began their seven-in-row march with a two-point win over Carnacon in the epic 2018 provincial final.

This had the making of a game for the ages too, going by a scintillating first half.

Kilkerrin-Clonberne flouted all of their greatest qualities, forcing ruthless turnovers and attacking at breakneck speed.

It took the best of Westport to hold the Connacht queens to nine points as they trailed by seven after a blistering opening quarter.

However, thanks to the defensive steel offered by the O’Malley sisters and Mayo captain Saoirse Lally, Westport got to grips with the girls in red.

They also missed three glorious goal chances at the other end. Ava Lambert and Fionnuala McLaughlin both narrowly missed the target while Aoife Staunton was denied by a great save by Lisa Murphy.

Therefore, Kilkerrin-Clonberne were genuinely lucky to be 0-11 0-6 ahead at the short whistle.

Westport made amends for their earlier goal misses when Ava Lambert teed up Laura Moran to crash home a thunderbolt of a goal shortly after the restart.

However, the first-time Mayo senior champions only added two more points as the defending Connacht champions grew wise to their running game.

This caused the game’s tempo to drop a few gears, particularly after Louise Ward saw yellow in the 43rd minute.

Westport only scored once against a fourteen-player Kilkerrin Clonberne, who saved the best until after Louise Ward reappeared.

She and her sister, Nicola, were the driving forces as the Galway girls galloped home in the last fifteen minutes as the excellent Eva Noone dotted the latest line of their glorious history with a goal and a point in injury time.

Scorers – Kilkerrin-Clonberne: E Noone 1-7 (3 frees), C Miskell, A Morrissey 0-3 each, S Divilly, L Ward, N Ward 0-1 each, O Divilly 0-1 (1 free)

Scorers – Westport: L Moran 1-5 (2 frees), A Staunton, L Tully, S El Massry

Kilkerrin-Clonberne: L Murphy; C Costello, L Petitt, N Divilly; K Mee, N Ward, H Noone; S Divilly, A Madden; O Divilly, L Ward, L Noone; E Noone, A Morrissey, C Miskell

Subs: S Gormally for Pettit (HT), C Boyle for C Miskell (56), A Madden for O Divilly (60)

Westport: R Scott; S Lally, J O’Malley, E O’Malley; S El Massry, N O’Malley, S McCarney; A Geraghty, S Mulroy; L Tully, F McLaughlin, A Kennedy; A Staunton, A Lambert, L Moran

Subs: C McEvilly for Tully (34), N Moran for Kennedy (49), K Chambers for Staunton (55)

Referee: John Niland (Sligo)