Gina’s goal-den moment
Cloughbawn win to secure the league and cup double
CLOUGHBAWN ST. JOSEPH’S 2 1 GINA FOLEY grabbed a 62nd-minute winner as Cloughbawn battled past a gutsy St. Joseph’s outfit to claim a league and Boland’s Carpets Cup double in Casey Park, Mayglass, on Sunday.
The striker latched on to a classy slide-rule Tina Cullen pass inside the penalty area and calmly prodded past the advancing Sarah Donnellan to complete a memorable comeback for the girls in green.
On an excellent surface for football, the underdogs St. Joseph’s, who finished a full ten points behind their Division 2A champion opponents, really set out their stall to have a go and take the game to Cloughbawn.
They looked to hit dangerous attacker Tracey McCormack with balls from wide and from deep and did it pretty well.
Cloughbawn, playing with the confidence that winning matches consistently brings, were comfortable biding their time and growing into the game.
The only thing that really stopped both teams at times was the ball ending up in, over or around the ditch. In fact, the ditch had so much possession, and dictated the pace of the game so well, that it must have ran the excellent Louise Hammel close for ‘player of the game’.
It’s a sad indictment of the league hierarchy that there was no second ball, fit for use, available for one of the showpiece cup finals.
When the ball was in play, St. Joseph’s initially looked the more likely to break the deadlock. McCormack headed an early cross narrowly wide of the left post.
Later, Aoife Kavanagh hooked a ball towards goal that Michaela Kennedy had to parry away.
At the other end Cloughbawn had looked dangerous from Jes- sica Martin’s set-pieces but it was no surprise when their opponents took a 16th-minute lead.
Emer O’Leary played the perfect ball in, with McCormack controlling and dinking a sublime finish past Kennedy.
Cloughbawn slowly settled into their pattern of play. Jessica Martin forced Donnellan into a full-length diving save, then provided the corner that cannoned off Laura Warren’s leg and flew into the bottom corner of her own net in the 33rd minute.
Another Martin dead-ball caused panic moments later but Tina Cullen sliced her chance wide at the back post. Cullen also had a shot saved by Donnellan before the break, after a great run by the determined Gina Foley.
Level at the interval, with neither side controlling the game, the cup was anybody’s for the taking.
Cloughbawn bossed the first 15 minutes after the re-start but had very few chances to show for their efforts.
On a rare foray forward at the other end, Donnellan’s long punt released O’Leary but Michaela Kennedy made a solid stop.
With just over an hour gone, Foley grabbed the winner.
Again the superb Jessica Martin was at the centre of it, picking out Cullen in the box, and she squared for Foley who showed all the composure of a striker in