St. Michaels 6-15, St. Ultans 2-11                                                        

Up until last evening these two teams were keeping each other company at the bottom of the Masita Ladies senior Championship with no points to their name, so this was a “must win” game for both clubs. 

With all things being equal, when St. Michaels began this game, little did they expect such a resounding victory, but St. Ultans had no answers to their direct style as they completely outplayed the luckless visitors on their home turf in Carlanstown. 

Player of the match Erin Lynch set up this victory with a fast clinical start, putting her side 2-2 to 0-2 up after only 10 minutes play, her opening majors coming in a three minute spell between the 6th and 9th minutes and also adding a point either side of her two goals. 

There were few questions asked of the home side by St. Ultans for the remainder of the opening half as St. Michaels who brought Lisa Keenan out of retirement and welcomed back Mary Carpenter, Sarah Bradley, Ellen Cassidy and Mary Clinton following their summer travels continued to pick off their scores with Sinéad McCormack (1-2), Lisa Keenan (0-2) and (0-1) apiece from Seona Lynch and Hayley Doyle giving their side a 3-9 to 1-5 lead at the short whistle. St. Ultans found the back of the net on 29 minutes.

The trend of play through the first half was to become more pronounced on the resumption as St. Michaels took control with Megan O'Brien (0-1), McCormack (0-1) and Yvonne Farrelly (1-0) all raising flags in the opening 2 minutes. St. Ultans never gave up hope and enjoyed their best spell in the third quarter when they posted 1-5 without reply to cut the deficit to 7 points, however their dominance was short lived as a penalty conversion from Keenan on 47 minutes brought the St. Michaels girls back to life and when Erin Lynch completed her hat-trick two minutes later the opening points of the championship were in the bag. Three further points followed from McCormack, Keenan and Seona Lynch. 

St. Michaels: Clodagh Corcoran; Marita Rogers, Áine Sheridan, Laura Halpin; Emma McDonnell, Mary Carpenter, Lorraine Curtis; Claire Halpin, Megan O'Brien (0-1); Sinéad McCormack (1-5), Hayley Doyle (0-1), Erin Lynch (3-3); Yvonne Farrelly (1-0), Lisa Keenan (1-3), Seona Lynch (0-2).                                                                                                                

Subs: Sarah Bradley for Corcoran 30 minutes, Ellen Cassidy for Rogers 35 minutes, Mary Clinton for Sheridan 50 minutes, Sally Keoghan for Farrelly 55 minutes. 

Referee: Paul Mooney.                                                                                                                             

Report and photo: Pascal Reilly, PRO.

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