Castleknock U 14 Ladies crowned Dublin Feile Champs

Castleknock Under 14 Ladies are crowned Dublin Feile Champions

A very busy weekend in Ladies football culminated in Castleknock
captain, Denise Convery, lifting the Dublin Feile trophy in
Westmanstown against gallant beaten finalists Ballyboden.
A very proud Dublin Ladies Board Chairman, our own John Hillery,
presented the trophy. The win means that Castleknock have
the honour of representing Dublin in the Feile Peile na nOg
2004 to be held in Tyrone in July.

The Dublin Feile commenced on Saturday morning with the group
stages, with two Castleknock teams entered in the competition
(the only other club with two teams in the competition was
Ballyboden). Castleknock A team ventured to The Naul and came
through a competitive group that included our very hospitable
host’s Clan Mhuire, St Brigids, St Maurs and Skerries, winning
all of their matches on the way.

The Under 14B team made a gallant effort in their group at
Bohernabreena. The outcome of the group came down to the decider
between Castleknock Bs and Round Towers with Round Towers
coming out victorious after a valiant effort by Castleknock.
Considering that most of the B team will be under 14 next
year, Castleknock’s participation in next year’s Dublin Feile
looks very encouraging. Well done girls

The group stages resulted in semi-finals in Westmanstown between
Ballyboden A’s and Cabinteely with Castleknock A’s coming
up against Round Towers (their second helping of Castleknock
in the weekend). Ballyboden won a very tight match against
Cabinteely, while Castleknock ran out winners against a very
dogged Round Towers side. Cabinteely and Round Towers contested
the Feile Shield Final with Cabinteely coming out victors.

The final turned out to be an excellent exhibition of competitive football fought out by two totally focussed teams. The match commenced with Ballyboden putting pressure on the Castleknock defence, which coped very well with Leann Quinn in particular flourishing in her “sweeper” role. Fiona Curley was also performing very well under the high ball. After a slow start, Castleknock at last began to move the ball up the field and a well-worked move up the right wing resulted in Ciara McDonnell sending over an accurate point. Ballyboden continued to press and were rewarded when the ball broke to Dearbhla Brennan who scored a well-taken point. Further Ballyboden pressure resulted in a further point for Laura Murphy. However, Castleknock were beginning to exert pressure of their own and this resulted in midfielder, Sinead Egan lobbing the Ballyboden keeper from an acute angle for the first goal of the game. Unfortunately Caroline Lynch who was having a very good game in defence had to retire with a finger injury.

Let the celebrations begin

The first half also witnessed some of the best goal-keeping
feats from player-of-the-match, Cheryl Cooney in the Castleknock
goal. In what seemed like a certain goal, Cheryl jumped and
managed to get her hand to the ball and push it against the
crossbar and away to safety. Castleknock went into the half-time
break 1-1 to 0-2 to the good.

After the half-time break Castleknock came forward exerting
more pressure and the early superiority resulted in one of
the best scores of the day. Denise Convery won possession
in the half back line and played the ball wide on the right
to Ailish McKenna, who’s first time ball found Ciara McDonnell.
Ciara (who covered an enormous amount of ground during the
match) also fed the ball early to Edel Quinn, who crossed
to find left corner-forward, Deborah Geraghty, in space, Deborah
took on and beat the Ballyboden defender and scored a goal
with clinical accuracy.

Back came Ballyboden, more pressure on the Castleknock defence,
in which Michelle Hoare, Grace O’Neill, Ciara Prunty, Denise
Convery and Fiona Curley were performing heroic clearances
at times. The strength of their performance was highlighted
by the statistics, which saw them limit their opponents to
one score (a goal) in the second half, from the impressive
Natalia Hyland, whose impression on the game was limited by
the tireless Ailish McKenna. In addition to her defence, Cheryl
Cooney made another “save of the season” when she somehow
managed to turn a goal-bound Ballyboden effort around the
post.

The match was end to end, with cameo battles taking place
all over the pitch. Upfront Shauna Bates was rewarded for
her tireless work (doubling up as centre-half forward and
full-forward) when her pressure on the Ballyboden defence
paid off when she managed to force the ball over the Ballyboden
goal line. The score took the pressure of the Castleknock
team. Further well taken points from Deborah Geraghty, after
some excellent feeds by Louise Hannon, brought some further
daylight between the teams. Deborah capped a fine display
with some a fine goal near the end.

Final Score Ballyboden 1-2 Castleknock 4-3

There were many individual heroes on the day, but the real
winner on the day was the team effort. The teams were really
well encouraged throughout the whole match by the great crowd.
Both sets of supporters had witnessed a truly competitive
and absorbing display by both teams. The bitterness of the
defeat for Ballyboden was lessened when they found out that
they too would go forward to compete in Feile Peile na nOg
2004

The Castleknock team was 1. Cheryl Cooney; 2. Michelle Hoare; 3. Fiona Curley; 4. Grace O’Neill; 5. Ciara Prunty; 6. Denise Convery (Captain); 7. Caroline Lynch; 8. Ailish McKenna; 9. Sinead Egan; 10. Edel Quinn; 11. Shauna Bates; 12. Leanne Ryan, 13. Leann Quinn; 14. Ciara McDonnell, 15. Deborah Geraghty; 16. Michelle Heelan; 17. Louise Hannon; 18. Noelle Farrell; 19. Alison Murphy, 20. Katie Kilkenny; 21.Jessie Boyle; 22. Eimear Shannon; 23. Niamh Luckie. Mentors: Pat Convery(Manager), Frank Curley, Valerie McDonnell and Nancy Egan