St Attracta’s survive
Connacht honours for Tubbercurry secondary school following a close encounter with Claremorris outfit
Connacht LGFA PPS Senior ‘B’ C’ship Final St Attracta’s CS Mount St Michael
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ORTUNATE are those teams who lose a final but return 12 months later, renewed and resilient, to find redemption.
The senior Ladies Footballers of St Attracta’s Community School found a way back and last Friday’s one-point defeat of Mount St Michael Secondary School, 0-13 to 0-12, in an ultratense decider was a victory that was a year in the making.
The Tubbercurry secondary school lost the Connacht LGFA Post Primary Schools Senior ‘B’ Championship final on January 19, 2023, with Convent of Mercy Roscommon winning by two points, 2-11 to 1-12, in the University of Galway Connacht GAA Air Dome.
Fast forward to January 26 – last Friday – and St Attracta’s were back in Bekan, this time on an outdoor pitch, provincial silverware again up for grabs.
St Attracta’s certainly made up for last year’s disappointing loss but it wasn’t straightforward.
They were three points clear by the sixth minute, 0-3 to 0-0, but four points down after 26 minutes, 0-9 to 0-5. However, the key phase for St Attracta’s was when they kicked three unanswered points in the closing stages of the firsthalf to be one adrift at the break, 0-9 to 0-8.
Breeze-assisted, they got back in front in the 48th minute, 0-12 to 0-11, and extended this lead to two, 0-13 to 0-11, with a 52nd minute point from the dynamic Cara King, who, the Sunday before, played for Sligo in the Lidl Ladies National Football League. Then came dreaded anxiousness as they had to cope without the influential Ellen Giblin, who had a 10-minute spell in the sin bin. Giblin was one of four players from the St Attracta’s junior team in the senior starting XV – this team lost the Connacht LGFA Post Primary Schools Junior ‘A’ Championship decider last month (Giblin captained the beaten finalists).
Mount St Michael, with six players who featured for Claremorris in last December’s LGFA All-Ireland Junior Club Championship final loss to Cork’s O’Donovan Rossa at Parnell Park (one of them, Alana Fitzpatrick, now plays for Mayo), refused to give up.
St Attracta’s were on the edge as this eventually nip and tuck encounter was almost dragged into extra-time by a team that beat the south Sligo side when they met earlier in this season’s competition.
Although Mount St Michael managed to reduce it to the minimum when Alana Fitzpatrick landed a good point in the last minute, the Claremorris-based secondary school couldn’t get any closer in the five additional minutes.
They missed chances, opted not to take shots into the wind and also found that they couldn’t get the better of St Attracta’s goalkeeper Catherine Gallagher, whose handling was cool and composed throughout.
While there were several heart-inmouth moments in the St Attracta’s goalmouth, last year’s finalists were holding on with a purpose – as exemplified by last-gasp tackles from the likes of Rebecca Staunton and Jessica Casey. Others stood up at various stages – players such as Aoibheann Durcan, Lucy Henry, Kate McCarthy, Blaithín Lavin, Aoife Cooke, the aforementioned Ellen
Giblin, Lauren Normanly and team captain Ciara Brennan, who supplied 0-3.
Cara King set the tone for the St Attracta’s win and three early points suggested that, even against the breeze, these teens were eager for atonement.
TURNING POINT:
The number of scorers for St Attracta’s Community School in last Friday’s decider.
Ciara Brennan pointed after 37 seconds, from a Blaithín Lavin pass, Lavin then scored and this was followed by a point from Lucy Henry.
But St Attracta’s scoreless spell of 13 minutes was mercilessly exploited by Mount St Michael, who responded with half a dozen points. Three of these scores came from the outstanding Bree Hession, who supplied 0-7 in all. It could have been much worse for St Attracta’s but the buzzing Bree Hession’s goal shot was parried by Catherine Gallagher.
Indeed, it was a relief for St Attracta’s to actually put a coherent attack together in the 19th minute when Aoife Cooke and Lucy Henry set up Lauren Normanly for a goal shot that screamed over for a point.