St. Michaels 1-22, Suncroft ( Kildare ) 2-10                                        

The fabulous winning run of St. Michaels ladies continued following this excellent contest at a packed Carlanstown on Sunday afternoon when they turned in an awesome second half display to book a place in the Leinster Intermediate semi-final for the first time on Sunday next.

A quick fire goal from Yvonne Farrelly two minutes into the second half set them on the road to victory. At the interval it looked like the Suncroft girls might have been the ones celebrating as the home side with five of their on-field players suffering from the flu bug were just about hanging in as they trailed by five points.

The visitors got off to a great start with two points in the opening two minutes, but a point apiece from Sinéad McCormack and Alicia Curtis drew the sides level on five minutes. Points from McCormack (2) Seona Lynch (2) Marion Farrelly (1) and Alicia Curtis (1) propelled St. Michaels into a 0-8 to 0-2 lead with 18 minutes gone. However Suncroft hit back with two goals in as many minutes, the first from a 13m free which sailed high over everyone's heads into the back of the net and the second followed a scramble in the St. Michaels goalmouth with the ball being toe poked over the line to level the match for the second time. They should have made that three goals but for the great work of Laura Halpin who deflected their effort out for a '45. This was the turning point for the Suncroft ladies as they could do no wrong for the remainder of the half firing over 6 unanswered points as St. Michaels struggled to put scores on the board with their final effort of the half coming in the 30th minute from Alicia Curtis to reduce the deficit to 0-9 to 2-8 at the interval.

St. Michaels couldn't have asked for a better start to the second half with Yvonne Farrelly rattling the net with just two minutes gone on the clock, driving a first time shot off the ground past goalkeeper Rebecca McGuirk. Suncroft tagged on two more points but the hard working Erin Lynch slotted over a point on the run and from this point forward St. Michaels assumed complete control as they battened down the hatches and fired home some excellent points from Marion Farrelly, Seona Lynch and Sinéad McCormack to lead by one after 49 minutes. To their credit Suncroft kept plugging away but they failed to find the target for the remainder of the game as the home side closed them down at every opportunity and they also had a goal bound effort cleared off the line by Áine Sheridan when the match was there for the taking. A pin point pass from Megan O'Brien to Marion Farrelly who duly pointed was the start of an excellent final 10 minutes for the home side as Marion Farrelly (3), Seona Lynch (3), Alicia Curtis (1) and Megan O'Brien (1) all kept the scoreboard ticking while keeping their opponents at arms length to book a place in the semi-final.                                                                                                                                    
Next weekend is another big one for the St. Michaels ladies as they host Naomh Ciaran from Offaly in Carlanstown on Sunday at 2.30pm for their fourth game in as many weeks to play Naomh Ciarán in the Leinster semi-final, we wish the team and management the very best of luck.                                   .

St. Michaels team & scorers: Sarah Bradley; Laura Halpin, Ellen Cassidy, Áine Sheridan; Emma McDonnell, Mary Carpenter, Lorraine Curtis; Claire Halpin, Megan O'Brien (0-1); Alicia Curtis (0-4), Erin Lynch (0-1 ), Seona Lynch (0-5); Marion Farrelly (0-7), Yvonne Farrelly (1-0), Sinéad McCormack (0-4). Subs: Rebecca Farrelly for McDonnell injured 43 minutes, Shauna Harten for Y. Farrelly 60 minutes, Deirbhile Curran for L. Curtis 60 minutes, Nicola Walsh for E. Lynch 60 minutes.

Referee: John Bermingham Wicklow

Report: Pascal Reilly, PRO.

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