Ladies Senior Football: Milltown v Celbridge 12/4/16
Ladies Senior Football
12th April 2016 Milltown v Celbridge
Written by Darren Gallagher
Following a very convincing win against Athgarvan last week, the pressure was on the girls to produce a similar performance and build on the momentum generated from the great start to the league campaign. Unlike the previous game the first half was an evenly contested affair with a mere 2 points separating the sides following end to end action throughout, with key battles in midfield where Leah & Grace performed admirably. Rowen made some great saves throughout the game (but especially in the second half when denying a goal following the award of a very controversial & disputed penalty) and had great success with picking out teammates on her kick-outs. Our defence were solid with full back line of Emma, Robyn & Niamh marshalling their opponents and restricting their scoring chances to a few points. They had great support from the half backs with Kellie & Éilish getting forward when opportunities arose, and Aimee providing great cover to midfield and blocking off the threat posed by many of the opposition attacks. I have been asked to make a special mention of our star forward Orla Gowran (under the alias of Ailish Gorran for Athgarvan game!). Orla made frequent off the shoulder runs splitting the home defence and scoring/setting up points at ease with Maeve & Aoife getting stuck in from the start. The full forwards provided suitable outlets with off the ball running & great scores from Nichola & Alex with Gemma key target and having another great performance and building on her season tally.
After no doubt some encouragement from Ben in the half time team talk, Celbridge looked a different team as second half kicked off, especially from an attacking perspective. The support play was excellent with slicker passing and space opened up for forwards to take some excellent team scores (especially the goals !). The work rate and commitment demonstrated by the girls was beginning to pay off as they continued to build on the scoreline, with a number of excellent goals from Orla (given the link up play that proceeded the brilliant finishing). And as we all know, it’s all about the squad and with the introduction of Nicole (for Maeve), it demonstrated the depth available, as Nicole continued the good work by Maeve to fight for the ball & take scores when presented. Emma & Hannah also used the opportunity to put pressure on first team starters and great to see the competition for places in the team. Although Milltown fought back, the resilience, teamwork & support didn’t wane with whole team fighting for every ball, chasing back when needed and always looking to burst forward. Our Captain Leah Earley led from the front and with the continued encouragement to the girls resulted in another great victory for the team.
Let’s keep up the hard work on the training pitch and continue building momentum to ensure we deliver the ultimate prize.
Apologies to all those I have omitted from report (& those with wrong names/spellings), but have attempted to broaden report to include non blondes also (per request from girls !)
Well done again to Ben and the Senior Ladies squad …..
Final score
Milltown 1-10 : Celbridge 10-9
Other result from Division 5:
St Laurence's 2 0-6 Ballymore 4-10
