Feast of Football...Restores the Faith

Feast
of Football, restores the faith.

Two cracking games in the TG4 All-Ireland Semi Finals at
Portlaoise, at least partly restored, the faith of the growing
number of doubters who becoming resigned to a dour, drab
and boring spectacle of ladies football on the bigger stage.

Dublin open it up, in opener. Dublin 2-14 Kerry 3-8

In a thrill a minute game played with passion, pride and
without prejudice Dublin got the better of a gallant Kerry
team for the 2nd year on the trot, to reach the final stage.
Such was the overall balance of this Dublin team, that many
of those who watched them will have installed them as favourites
for ultimate honours, to make up for last years galling
experience.

Lucky to escape against Donegal in the quarter final they
left little to chance on this occasion. Powered from midfield
by their captain Martina Farrell and player of the match
Fiona Corcoran, Dublin carried the game to Kerry and had
11 points on the board at the break. Kerry had 2-1 on the
board and the main reason they were still in touch was the
opportunistic striking power of precocious Kacy O’Driscoll,
who notched the two goals.

Angie McNally’s constant running was causing all sorts of
problems up front and an inspired Mary Nevin ran the Kerry
defence ragged.

Kerry made a huge effort for the opening 10 minutes of the
2nd half and another goal from Kacy O’Driscoll and a brace
of points from Geraldine O’Shea gave them the lead and hope.
It was nip and tuck for the next 15 minutes with the game
finely balanced, but a sublime goal from Fiona Corcoran,
who slid the ball to the net for a goal any Premiership
striker would be proud of, was the defining and decisive
moment of the game. All the Dublin forwards scored while
Kerry were too reliant on their All-Star duo.

Credit Eugene O’Hare as well for contributing his share
to the spectacle with excellent practical and no nonsense
refereeing.
Scorers:

Dublin: Mary Nevin 0-6 (0-3f) Ashling McCormkack 0-3
Bernie Finlay 1-0 Fiona Corcoran 1-0 Angie Mcnally 0-2 Elaine
kelly 0-2 Lyndsay Davey 0-1
Kerry: Kacy O’Driscoll 3-1 Geraldine O’Shea, 0-3,
Patrice Dennehy 0-1. Noreen Fealey, 0-1 Deirdre Corridon
0-1 Katie Kenneally 0-1

Galway come back from dead. Galway 1-10 Mayo 1-10

The main talking point at the end of this game was how Mayo
contrived to draw this game when they were on top for 55
minutes. The performance of the referee who appeared to
be whistle happy was also a talking point. The defining
moment of the game came with the sending off of Diane O’Hora,
who was going in on goal having gone past her opponent,
an unfortunate clash which did not appear deliberate, resulted
in a serious injury to Marie O’Connell and a red card for
O’Hora.

Mayo who earlier had to play with 13 as a result of sin
binning, could not cope with this setback. Galway on the
other hand who looked down and out finally woke up and scored
1-4 in the last 6 minutes, the goal coming from a free,
which was dispatched to the net after Mayo committed the
cardinal error of not covering the goal line, leaving just
2 to guard the net.

Galway sensationally went ahead with a point, with less
than 2 minutes left on the clock and Mayo looked to be out.
Then in a last ditch effort, they worked the ball upfield
and won a close in free, which Cora Staunton cooly pointed.
Their scorer and chief with 1-8, 5 coming from frees had
earlier missed 2 chances that would have put Mayo out of
reach.

The Mayo display in the first half was awesome their backs
were superb and with Claire Egan in inspired form the forwards
responded, Miss Staunton with an early gem of a goal set
the trend and their 6 point interval lead did not reflect
their complete superiority.

Credit Galway for not throwing in the towel and their substitutions
saved them on the day. On the evidence of Saturday, one
wonders how they inflicted a 14 point drubbing of Mayo in
the Connaught final. They certainly will be much more in
tune when the sides meet at Roscommon at 5.30pm on Saturday
evening.

Mayo: Cora Staunton 1-8 (5f). Christine Heffernan 0-1
Diane O’Hora 0-1.
Galway: Niamh Duggan 0-6 f. Niamh Fahy 1-0.Gillian
Joyce 0-2 Patricia Gleeson 0-1 AnnMarie McDonagh 0-1

Sligo and Kildare reach Junior Final.

Scenes reminiscent of an All-Ireland final were witnessed
at Mullingar on Sunday, when Sligo annihilated Cork on a
score line of 7-7 to 0-1. Most of damage was done by the
Connaught young player of the year Stephanie O’Reilly who
notched 4 goals.

Kildare last years beaten finalists again reached the decider
when they defeated Armagh 1-11 to 1-3 to set up an intrguing
final clash.

Fr Liam Kelleher