Tel Lab Carlow Senior ladies football final
Old Leighlin 2-7 Bennekerry/Tinryland 2-5 Report by Eamonn Byrne
Bennekerry/Tinryland the current Carlow senior champions and All Ireland Intermediate title holders lost their year long unbeaten championship record to a hungrier Old Leighlin in a hard-fought Co. final at SETU Carlow on Saturday 4th October.
A 59th minute Caoimhe O’Neill goal for the ladies from Molaise Park was the key score in this game played in blustery conditions at the Kilkenny Road venue.
Five minutes earlier Bennekerry/Tinryland had hit the front with a Cliodhna Ni Se major having fallen behind in the early stages of the 2nd half to a Gemma Carpenter goal for Old Leighlin.
The eventual winners were first out of the traps with two Gemma Carpenter points in the opening 10 minutes in a period that Old Leighlin lost their top player Rachael Sawyer to a nasty leg injury. Rachael was replaced by her sister Jenny who is a national senior athletics champion in the 400m hurdles. Bennekerry/Tinryland gained parity by the 13th minute with two Cliodhna Ni Se points, and they hit the front for the first time in the 15th minute when Ni Se pointed after good play by Elaine Ware. Two Old Leighlin points from Amy Farrell and Gemma Carpenter then followed before the half ended on a positive note for the ladies in Black and amber when Cliodhna found the Old Leighlin net in the dying seconds of first half stoppage time. Half Time score Bennekerry/Tinryland 1-3 Old Leighlin 0-4.
The 2nd half half began with that Gemma Carpenter goal followed by a point from from the same player as BT sent on Roisin Byrne and Grace Lawler into battle. A Cliodhna Ni Se point and another from the recently introduced Roisin Byrne mid-way in the second half left the teams all square again and all to play for. Chloe Ryan was then introduced for BT, and she was unlucky shortly after her introduction when her goalbound shot was deflected for a ’45.
BT then got the tonic that most of their supporter’s thought was a match winning one when Cliodha Ni Se rattled the ball past her Co teammate Nicole Hanly with 8 minutes remaining.
Old Leighlin now threw the kitchen sink in an effort to gain parity sending on fresh legs in Noa Bambrick and they were rewarded with a Kate Burke point in the 58th minute quickly followed by that Caoimhe O’Neill goal that ensured an 11th Carlow senior title for Old leighlin.
Old Leighlin: Nicole Hanley, Keeva Collins, Anne Roche, Beibhin Nolan, Siofra O’Neill, Niamh Forde, Katie Garry-Murphy, Bronagh Nolan 0-1, Amy Farrell 0-1, Rachel Sawyer, Caoimhe O’Neill 1-0, Kate Burke 0-1, Helen Roche, Gemma Carpenter 1-4, Amy Hanley. Sub: Noa Bambrick.
Bennekerry/Tinryland: Shannen Cotter, Clodagh Mahon, Leanne Corcoran, Marie Cranny, Ruth Bermingham, Leah Mullins, Sinead Thompson, Elaine Ware, Fiona O’Sullivan, Aoibhin Webb, Cliodhna Ni Se 2-4, Maeve O’Neill, Tara Webb, Sarah Nolan, Sinead Hayden. Subs: Roisin Byrne 0-1, Grace Lawler, Chloe Ryan.
Referee Marion Hayden Eire Og
