O'Mahonys 2-13 Duleek/Bellewstown 4-12

Navan O'Mahonys travelled up to Duleek on a sunny Wednesday evening to take on Duleek in in round two of the junior championship.

The ground was hard, the grass was cut and May football was in full swing. Navan secured a good win in round two versus Skryne while Duleek lost out away to Dunsany by 11point margin. Navan however were very under strength numbers wise with a few exam absentees, injuries and concert goers which meant only 13 available players for this round two clash. But full filling the fixture was never in question which shows the great attitude in the current O'Mahonys group with two more debutants throwing in the deep end at this level.

The Navan side opted to sacrifice attack for defence and left both Duleek corner backs free and task Orlaith Mallon with keeping the whole full back line busy. A task she carried out to great benefit of her team. The first score of the match took a while to construct as O'Mahonys sat back in order to feel out the 13 on 15 conundrum. Keeping in the game for as long as possible was the main aim. With a full complement of usual backs and excellent ball playing from the keeper Navan forced Duleek into missed chance while turning over possession. Navan boxed clever during this first half with tactics and positional play proving to help keep them in this contest. Winning some frees which were dispatched over from the left boot of Sarah Powderly along with Aoibheann Leahy slotting over from the dugout side after hard working to set her up Navan were proving that extra players mean very little when you're willing to put in a mammoth shift of work.  Duleeks free players weren't really utilised and rarely ventured far from their own 21. While Navan conceded the space for the Duleek kicks outs the home side rarely opted for the short kick ones. On one such occasion Duleek went short the corner back went to hand pass over Jacinta Maher clearly underestimating her commitment to the Navan case. She blocked the ball down, chased after it to start a 25-meter solo run and finish to the net to put Navan 1.06. However, Duleek score their own goal not a minute later with an excellent run and low finish. Half time whistle came seconds later with Navan ahead by 3 points.

Duleek came out very fast and intense in the second half probably owing to the very vociferous team talk they got at half time which could be heard from pitch side. It was the tonic for them in this circumstance as they had a very strong 12 to 15 minutes that left Navan trying to hold on score wise as general play was pretty even contest. Leahy kept Navan scoreboard ticking over with some worldie long range efforts. Possibly Navans only gripe was with Duleeks third goal that seemed to be a square ball however nothing could be taken away from an excellent fourth goal which arrowed into the top corner from a good 20 25 meters out. This was to put Duleek 11 points ahead and it seemed the valiant effort from the Navan side had been squashed until Laura Gillen channelled her in Iniesta. Just like the Spanish play marker Laura was able to deliver a ball over the defender straight into the hands of Lizzie Brennan who was on the run and rounded the keeper to finish it off. Leahy got 2 more pints before Lizzie added Navans last score. With 3 minutes to go the margin was down to 5. Which Navan on the attack and passing the Duleek 45 the ref chose a bad time to blow for full time. Although any score from this attack wouldn't have changed the result it would have been nice to see how it played out.

Duleek celebrated a nice win for them which meant a lot after an underwhelming 2017 in junior A. However, much credit should go to the valiant 13 from Navan who played a full hours of football 2 players down and gave Duleek a very good game. Hannah Heskin and Kate Falahee were fantastic at the back but they were surround by less experienced players perhaps who chose a great day to stand up and produce maybe their best game this year. Both Orlaith and Lauren made adult debuts. There will be better results for them to savour.     

Both teams are back in league action next week. Hopefully Navan can get 15 as its certainly easier.

Navan O'Mahonys: Sarah Stanley, Deirdre Forde, Kate Falahee, Lauren Frayne, Aoife Devlin, Hannah Heskin, Michelle Beggy, Aoibheann Leahy (0-05), Sarah Powderly (0-04), Laura Gillen, Lizzie Brennan (1-02), Jacinta Maher (1-02), Orlaith Mallon.

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