Blessington rejoice after stunning win over St Pat’s
BLESSINGTON recorded their first ever Senior championship victory over St Patrick’s last Saturday evening in glorious Dunbur Park after a thrilling encounter that went right down to the wire.
Shauna Byrne’s goal after 13 minutes of the second half looked to be the score that would drive Blessington on as they opened up a 2-11 to 2-5 lead but full credit to a Pat’s side that played almost 30 minutes without full-forward Clodagh Fox who picked up a painful looking injury but who rejoined the fray 10 minutes into the second half for never giving up and for closing that gap to a single point before Laura Allen got the insurance score for the visitors at the death.
This was a really excellent game of football with a wonderfully high standard of score-taking and overall play. Blessington’s Jess Brennan kicked four of the most tremendous points off her left boot, all from distance, while Sarah Delahunt converted some very tricky frees and four quality goals were scored, two for both sides.
Strong running and fierce tackling were the order of the day with Molly Cullen, Niamh Cullen, Amy Ryan and Emily Rose O’Toole just some of the Blessington players who covered every blade of grass while Lucy Dunne was a powerhouse at half-back for Pat’s proving to be a thorn in the Blessington side when defending and when bursting forward to deliver ball to a very busy attack.
Also, worth noting that Blessington suffered a yellow card in the second half, to full-forward Laura Allen, but she would return with gusto and fire over that late score to give her side some precious breathing space.
Robert Hollingsworth’s side started like a train and were 2-1 to 0-2 up by the eighth minute thanks to goals from the always dangerous Laura Manley, who blasted home a breaking ball after a Sarah Delahunt free had dropped short, and Niamh Caffrey, who fired home after a long run having collected a ball from the aforementioned Lucy Dunne.
Blessington were struggling in the early stages but had two points on the board, the first from the impressive Niamh Cullen and the second from Sadhbh Fisher before the Pat’s double goal blitz arrived.
But then the visitors settled down in the beautiful sunshine in scenic Dunbur Park and registered three points on the trot (Amy Ryan, Sadhbh Fisher (free), and the first of Jess Brennan’s four bombs) to close the gap to 2-1 to 0-5.
Molly Cullen then pounced on a poor Pat’s kick-out to lash home to the back of the net and another Sadhbh Fisher free moments later served to turn this game on its head with Blessington leading 1-6 to 2-1.
The pressure on the Pat’s kickouts was serving Blessington well at this stage but there was little anyone could do for Jess Brennan’s next two scores as the club stalwart drove over two stunners either side of a Molly Cullen point to open up a 1-8 to 2-3 gap at the break, Sarah Delahunt’s free and Laura Manley’s point from play being Pat’s additions.
Jess Brennan fired over her fourth after the restart and by the time Shauna Byrne launched a rocket over Megan Dunne’s head it was 1-11 to 2-5 with Pat’s looking in real trouble on home turf.
But the Pat’s side bounced back impressively. Clodagh reentered the fray and Robert Hollingsworth made some changes and all of a sudden, we were bang in the middle of a cracker. Sarah Delahunt (free), Laura Leonard, Delahunt again (free), Saoirse O’Reilly’s second of the day and Laura Leonard’s second pulled them back to within a single point.
Legs were tiring now and shot selection started to suffer. Both sides registered wides (Blessington three, one for St Pat’s) before Laura Allen fired over the insurance score and the Blessington players rejoiced when the final whistle sounded.
An epic battle to behold, full of all that’s good about ladies football.