Senior Ladies - Championship Round 3

St Brigids vs Kilmeena

St Brigids 9 – 07, Kilmeena 4 - 12

Kilmeena travelled to Kilfian on Sunday, 14th September to contest this third round of the Junior A Championship. Both teams lost their second-round encounters seven days earlier,so each needed to get something out of this contest – for St Brigid’s a win would likely see them through to the cup semi-final whilst a win for Kilmeena would ease relegation fears and offer a potential shield final spot.

Scoring 4 – 12 will win a lot of games but not today! Scoring the same number of times as the opposition might also yield a share of the spoils but not when the opposition score nine goals and accumulate more green than white flags. Those are the quirks of this contest.

For the third Sunday in a row, mother nature wasn’t in the mood for kindness – conditions were blustery and wet for the entire contest.

Kilmeena had the aid of a stiff breeze for the opening 30 minutes. Playing 13-aside (at the behest of St Brigids) Kilmeena put in a good opening half. Three goals and fourpoints from the boot of Ciara Joyce and points from Lisa Hastings and Eabha Carney meant the visitors held a 3-pointlead at the small whistle.

Half time score: St Brigids 3 – 03, Kilmeena 3 - 06

Kilmeena faced into a strong breeze for the second half but battled away throughout and were still well in contention, only trailing by four points with 8 minutes remaining. However, St Brigids utilised the long ball at times to great effect and in so doing they scored a total of six goals in the second half, albeit one of those was awarded by the referee after he had (seconds earlier) blown for a free! Kilmeena did score a goal and six points in the second half, but this was never enough to offset the blitz of second half goals by St Brigids.

This was most definitely a contest where goals win games.

The final result leaves the Kilmeena ladies facing Westport B in a few weeks time, with the winner of that contest retaining Junior A status for 2026.

Team; Aoife Gannon, Sheila Bohan, Laura O'Grady, Mags Ryder, Aine Gallagher, Sinead Hughes, Laura Kelly, Eabha Carney, Amy Carney, Lisa Hastings, Siofra Hughes, Ciara Joyce, Emma Murray.

Subs: Leah Walsh for Emma Murray, Emma Murray (reintroduced) for Amy Carney (injury), Amy Carney later reintroduced for Leah Walsh, Katie Moran (Jnr) for Emma Murray, Katie Moran (Snr) for Mags Ryder, Eva Mulchronefor Siofra Hughes, Lucy O’Malley for Sheila Bohan, Rachel Gibbons, Ellie Mai Keane, Emma Jane Gill, Julie O’Grady.