St. Michaels 5-7, Ratoath 4-3
Marion Farrelly once again displayed her undoubted footballing talents as she helped St. Michaels hold off a very determined challenge from an understrength Ratoath side in a highly entertaining match played in Carlanstown on Saturday evening last. Farrelly finished the game with 4-5 to her credit and while some of those scores were from the top drawer, it was her second goal which turned the game back in St. Michaels favour to bring them from two points down to go one ahead with only two minutes plus injury time remaining on the clock.
Ratoath could only field eleven players and had the misfortune of having another player injured in the warm-up, however they took the game to the home side from the throw-in and although Farrelly opened the scoring with 1-1, Ratoath were on level terms by the 12th minute and the sides exchanged a point apiece to level matters again on two more occasions in the opening half but the home side finished stronger with Yvonne Farrelly bagging a goal on 29 minutes and Marion Farrelly splitting the posts in the 31st minute to lead 2-4 to 1-3 at the interval.
Both sides enjoyed plenty of possession in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, but could not make no in-roads on the scoreboard and it took until the eleventh minute for Marion Farrelly to open the second half scoring with a point, Ratoath responded immediately with a goal to reduce the deficit to two points, Yvonne Farrelly made it a 3 point game two minutes later and a great individual effort from Lorraine Curtis who collected the ball at mid-field, soloed forward and popped it over to put 4 points between the teams. However to their credit the Ratoath girls responded well and in a two minute spell they rattled the net twice to go two points in front, St. Michaels were shell shocked and try as they might in the following 6 minutes they could make no impact on the scoreboard until up popped Marion Farrelly to bag a hat trick of goals in a 4 minute spell to secure the points.
Apart from Farrelly, St. Michaels were also able to draw inspiration from the performance and hard work put in by Áine Sheridan, Sarah Bradley, Mary Carpenter, Lorraine Curtis, Patricia Owens, Yvonne Farrelly and substitute Hayley Doyle.
St. Michaels team & scorers: Clodagh Corcoran, Shauna Harten, Áine Sheridan, Laura Halpin, Sarah Bradley, Lorraine Curtis 0-1, Mary Carpenter, Patricia Owens, Yvonne Farrelly 1-1, Marion Farrelly 4-5, Gillian Brogan.
Subs: Hayley Doyle, Erin Lynch, Ellen Cassidy, Gráinne McDonagh, Emma McDonnell, Trease Fagan, Nicola Walsh, Rebecca Lynch.
Referee: Seamus O'Connor.
Report and photo Pascal Reilly.
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