Rovers enjoy comprehensive win in Bushy Park

THE under-14 Wicklow Rovers girls travelled to Bushy Park last weekend to face Terenure Rangers in a league encounter.

The squad was missing four regulars, but were hoping to build on last week’s performance.

It was evident during the warm up a terrible pitch surface was going to be a challenge to both sides.

The game commenced with both sides getting at each other and creating opportunities that were either saved by the keepers or wide of the target.

As Rovers got to grips with the playing surface their confidence and ability got stronger and this culminated in the opening goal of the game on eight minutes with a fine midfield through ball on the left hand side for Justine Cronin to run on to, and after steadying herself place a fine 20-yard strike into the bottom corner of the net.

The Rovers team continued to create chances and a couple of fine runs from Aoife Caffrey and Anna Dignam down the wings should have yielded further goals before the half-time whistle sounded.

The half-time talk was all about the girls beating the pitch conditions and trusting their fitness and ability all over the park, while maintaining formation shape with the message taken on board the second half commenced.

This led to Rovers dominating the half and goals arrived on 43 minutes with a fine finish from the edge of the box by Anna Dignam, followed by two goals on 53 and 58 minutes from Justine, the second of which was unstoppable shot into the top corner to complete her hat-trick.

To the credit of the hosts they kept going and several good defensive challenges and saves from Abi Smyth were needed before a fine passage of football down the field led to the ball being set up for Anna Dignam to rifle her second of the game and fifth of the season.

As we moved into added time a final run and finish from Justine saw her grab her fourth goal, the third time this season she has hit the net on four occasions in a game and her fourth hat-trick of the campaign to leave the final score 6-0 to the girls.

As highlighted last week the pleasing aspect is the development of the squad and although missing four, the 13 involved all contributed to the win

Back: Rachel Cox, Eve Kelly, Abi Smith, Aoife Caffrey, Julie Phelan, Katie Marah, Lucy Rampersaud. Front: Jade O’Brien, Sorcha Cull, Anna Dignam, Abi Farrell, Justine Cronin, Aoife Connolly. Missing from photo: Molly Sweeney, Shauna Cull, Lauren Mc...