All Ireland Junior Club Camogie Championship Semi- Final played at Kinnegad Sun 9th Nov

Half time score: Kilmessan 2-6 Lacken 1-1
Full time score: Kilmessan 4-12 Lacken 1-4

It was a tale of two Megans for Kilmessan camogie team on Sun as the first half performance of Megan Thynne and the second half display from Megan Ni Choileain contributed greatly to the winners victory placing the Meath side into their first ever All Ireland Club Final.
Despite the scoreline, this was not an easy win for the Meath champions and the were made to fight very hard for every ball.

Kilmessan got off to a great start with midfielder Stephanie Horan laying off to Megan Thynne for her first score in the opening minutes. Lacken's full forward Roisin O'Keeffe hit back with a goal shortly after after she pulled to the net when  a ball broke in behind the Kilmessan full back line. lacken looked like seizing the upper hand when they deployed two sweepers between Kilmessan' half and full forward lines obviously aware of the attacking threats that Kilmessan have up front. While they did look to have Katie Ni Choileain and Kelly Gorman well marked, corner forward Thynne was unstoppable and she scored 1-4 in the opening half, impressive points off both sides and a clever goal after she danced through three defenders to hand pass the ball to the lacken net. Other starting to come into the match was Tracy King and half forward Nadine Doyle with some excellent high fielding. Kilmessan's other first half  scores came from Katie Ni Choileain with a trademark side net finish (1-0) after Thynne set her up, Megan Ni Choileain (0-1) after a strong solo run down the left wing and an Aileen Donnelly free (0-1).

With a half time lead of eight points it was assumed Kilmessan would push on in the second half however it was Lacken who struck first with two pointed frees  from half forward Eimear Brady after O'Keeffe now playing at midfield started to use her pace to make strong runs at the Kilmessan attack. With limited space around the middle sector Kilmessan had to dig deep and fight hard for scrappy ball and this is when the second Megan (Ni  Choileain) came into her own, with her awesome pace she made set up countless runs down the left flank turning defence into attack in a matter of seconds.  She scored two excellent points from play, set up her cousin Katie for her second goal and it was only fitting that she got the last score of the match after she latched onto a cross field Frances Lynch pass after a clever burst through the middle. Kilmessan's second half performance was improved from the first and the substitutions of Laura Irwin in defence and Sarah Ross in attack paid dividends as Irwin's physicality was badly needed at the back while Ross grabbed a point and was unlucky not to get a goal. The switch of Donnelly with Lynch also helped as Lynch scored two points and Donnelly played more intelligent ball into the forward line.

Kilmessan know that this performance would not be good enough to win their first ever all Ireland but it was a case of job done and manager John Watters was quick to emphasise that.

They have however put themselves into an all Ireland final against four roads of Roscommon in two weeks time and if they can produce a full 60 mins of what they showed in patches on Sunday then who knows!!!

Kilmessan team and scorers: A. Carroll, M. Horan, C. O'Leary, N. Sheridan, M. O'Leary, A. Lynch, T. King, S. Horan, F. Lynch 0-2, M. Ni Choileain 1-3, A. Donnelly 0-1f, N. Doyle,  K. Gorman, K. Ni Choileain (2-0), M. Thynne 1-5
Subs: S. Ross 0-1 for K. Gorman, L. Irwin for N. Sheridan, J. Smyth for S. Horan.

Upcoming fixture: Sun 23rd Nov: Kilmessan v Four Roads (Roscommon)- All Ireland Junior Club Camogie Championship Final

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