Ladies: time defeats Blackhall
August 13, 2014Ratoath 1-10
After a long break, the Intermediate Ladies Football Championship is back. Blackhall took on Ratoath in Ratoath on Monday (11th) night.
The team looked rejuvenated with a few girls back from holidays. The Gaels side started poorly with Ratoath piling on the pressure from the get-go. Inside the first ten minutes Ratoath scored 6 points and seemed to be well ahead. After a traumatic injury to one of the Ratoath girls, Blackhall seemed to wake up. Just as Blackhall looked to be getting on top around the field disaster struck as a near certain wide ball, ducked just under the crossbar. While the football moved up the field more consistently for the final 10mins of the first half, the Ratoath backs held strong leaving the half time score 1-8 to zero in favour of the home crowd.
The second half opened like the first with Ratoath piling on the pressure with quick balls in and plenty of carrying. But Blackhall had arrived and the midfield and halfbacks, in particular, stopped numerous attacks with the fullbacks clearing any high balls coming in. Five minutes into the second half the game was stopped to allow for the injured Ratoathian to be taken away by ambulance. And that break was exactly what Blackhall needed. While Ratoath seemed to slacken off, Blackhall upped their game and powered through the Ratoath defence to score a 2-1 in ten minutes. Super sub, Aileen Coyle scored the first goal and the ever impressive Sue McCormack, the second. Amy Nicholson and Lisa Kelly added to the points before another awful injury for Ratoath occured. With six points in it and seven minutes to go Blackhall pressed on with Kelly scoring 1-1 in the dying minutes. Unfortunately for the Blackhall girls, time ran against them and their comeback proved fruitless. The final score saw Ratoath run out one point winners with a scoreline of 1-10 to Balckhall's 3-3. The girls now face local rivals Royal Gaels in two weeks time (Friday 22nd) in a battle for a place in the semi-finals. Lastly, on behalf of the Blackhall team, best wishes the two McNerney sisters on two very speedy recoveries!
Blackhall Gaels - Sarah O' Keane , Claire Burke , Michelle Dalton , Emer Keane , Leona Nestor , Jane Burke , Gráinne Ryan , Sinéad O'Sullivan , Paula Dunne , Ann Murphy , Suzanne McCormark (1-0), Suzanne Kelly , Lisa Kelly (1-2), Fran Nolan , Rose O'Donnell. Subs - Emer Nolan , Amy Nicholson (0-1), Aileen Coyle (1-0), Tweet
