Fermoy denied hat trick, despite great performance

Sunday saw the Fermoy Ladies travel to Kiskeam
in search of their third consecutive league win.
However, their opponents Boherbuí were to spoil
the brave effort of this young new team with a
high-octane first half performance. It was Boherbuí
who dominated the opening exchanges, showing excellent
long range scoring ability with some superb points
scored by their half-forward line. Fermoy full-back
Sarah O’ Flaherty had an excellent performance
and goalie Lorna Barry made three fantastic saves
within the first 20 minutes of the game that kept
Fermoy in contention.

Fermoy seemed to have fallen into a temporary
coma and were unable to clear the ball past mid-field.
Eventually, minutes from half time, Boherbuí claimed
two goals that they richly deserved but the referee,
in a somewhat harsh decision awarded a dubious
third goal and this more or less sealed the fate
of the Fermoy challenge, or so it appeared. The
half-time whistle could not have come soon enough
for the Fermoy girls and they appeared somewhat
dazed when it did. There seemed to be no way back
for the girls and heads were down and hearts heavy
as they marched to the sidelines for a ‘talking
to’ from coaches Séan O’ Hagan and Ger Shinnick.
If one could bottle the inspiring words spoken
by the Fermoy mentors at half time, one would
have no call to play mid-week lotto!!

If ever there was a game of two halves, this was
it!

The second half saw a complete change in the Fermoy
players’ mental and physical attitude to Boherbuí.
The respect that Fermoy had shown Boher in the
first half had vanished and every Fermoy player
was challenging, fighting and in many cases winning
any 50/50 ball. Rebecca Wall got Fermoy on the
scoreboard with an excellent point and from there
it was all Fermoy. Elisa de Luca followed with
not one, but two excellent goals and all of a
sudden Fermoy woke-up! Boherbuí were in for a
fight!! Fermoy dominated possession but it seemed
as if the gods had conspired against the girls,
as they were unable to convert this possession
to points on the scoreboard. A disallowed goal
by Swedish star Wall did not aid their efforts
and in the end it was Boherbuí who finished the
victors, despite only scoring a single point from
an awarded free in the second half. A lot of credit
must go to the great defensive effort shown by
left-wing back, Cora Roche in the second half.

The final score was 3-9 to 3-2 in favour of Boherbuí,
but the second half saw the credibility of this
Fermoy side restored and they should not be counted
out as league champion contenders.