Wednesday July 19th 2017
Ladies IFC, round 4
Full time: St. Michaels 2-10, Ratoath 1-13, Half time: St. Michaels 1-03, Ratoath 0-07.
Sinéad McCormack knocked over the levelling point from a free in the fourth minute of injury time to rescue a share of the spoils for St. Michaels in this hotly contested Divinity Tile and Bathroom IFC in Carlanstown last evening.
The home side were trailing by 1-8 to 1-13 in the 57th minute and looked to be in big trouble, however they held their nerve and dug deep with a late spell of pressure that ultimately saw them level for a deserved draw.
Ratoath opened the scoring with a point in the first minute and the sides exchanged points and were on level terms on four occasions for the remainder of the opening half. Three in a row from Seona Lynch, Megan O'Brien and Sinéad McCormack made it 0-3 to 0-2 at the end of the opening quarter. Ratoath drew level before good interplay between Patricia Owens and Marion Farrelly set up O'Brien for the opening goal on 19 minutes. Ratoath rallied and sent over four unanswered points to lead by one at the break, 0-7 to 1-3.
St. Michaels edged in front early in the second half with points from Lynch and Farrelly but back came the visitors with two pointed frees to lead by one once more but a well executed point on the run from Seona Lynch levelled the match for the 5th time. St. Michaels lost Hayley Doyle to the sin-bin at the end of the third quarter and failed to trouble the scoreboard operator for a 10 minute period as the visitors chipped away with 3 unanswered points. Lynch and McCormack added a point apiece for the home side before Ratoath found the back of the net for a 1-12 to 1-8 lead after 52 minutes and they extended that lead to 5 points two minutes later. St. Michaels backs were now to the wall after losing their full forward to a yellow card and the clock ticking into injury time, but full credit to their never say die attitude as they didn't lie down but they put all shoulders to the wheel and set up another attack which Sinéad McCormack got on the end of to toe poke to the net. Seona Lynch then won another free which she calmly set over the black spot to leave just the minimum between the sides and a minute later Sinéad McCormack showed nerves of steel as she stepped up to convert the levelling free in the fourth minute of injury time.
It's a credit to both teams that this game was level on six occasions and it made for a fascinating contest between two teams that had a right good go at each other. One stat that both sides will have to improve on for different reasons is that 10 of the visitors 13 points came from frees.
St. Michaels team & scorers: Sarah Bradley; Marita Rogers, Ellen Cassidy, Aine Sheridan; Lorraine Curtis, Hayley Doyle, Emma McDonnell; Mary Carpenter, Sinéad McCormack (1-3); Megan O'Brien (1-1), Alicia Curtis, Seona Lynch (0-5); Marion Farrelly (0-1), Patricia Owens, Yvonne Farrelly.
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