Gorey bow out in Leinster bid
Double Junior champs best
DOUBLE All-Ireland Junior champions Johnstownbridge proved a little too athletic for Naomh Eanna in the Leinster Intermediate camogie championship quarter-final in Páirc Uí Shíocháin on Sunday.
The Kildare club are stepping up to the second tier after mastering the third, and they had too much ammunition in the attacking third of the field for the Wexford Intermediate champions.
Skills-wise, the hosts were certainly not lacking. Their tackling was cleaner and they were competitive around the park, but their opponents possessed great ability to create space close to goal and it proved critical.
They started off brightly with a couple of Ellen Roche frees but, in a difficult breeze, the Gorey club would end the first-half with more wides from dead-balls than scores and that was always likely to prove difficult to overcome.
Siobhán Hurley had an early shot saved by Marie Kennedy in the Gorey goal, but Johnstownbridge did start to motor as the half wore on with the impressive Catherine Maloney registering a trio of minors.
Naomh Eanna trailed by 0-6 to 0-5 after Orla Molloy scored a classy point, their only one from play in the game. However, their half-time deficit could have been worse had Hurley been given the advantage when through on goal in added time.
Róisín O’Connell tapped over the resulting free and her side went in 0-8 to 0-5 ahead. A couple of Roche frees did close the gap to just one point by the 36th minute, but the hosts failed to score again.
Johnstownbridge eased away without ever looking likely to get caught.
On the one occasion Naomh Eanna didn’t nearly get in, Roche shot high and hard but just to the wrong side of the post and into the side-netting.
In the end Hurley put a seal on victory with her fourth dead-ball score and the visitors - who included former Duffry Rovers and Wexford player Louise Codd in their squad - were able to comfortably hold on to reach the last four. For Gorey, the disappointment of this game won’t last too long with the chance to compete at Senior level just around the corner.
Naomh Eanna: Marie Kennedy; Aoife Hughes, Lorna Cushe, Aoibheann Doyle; Molly McGuckin, Siobhán Doyle, Catríona O’Brien; Orla Molloy (0-1), Róisín Egan; Orlagh Hall, Ellen Roche (0-6 frees), Riona O’Sullivan; Louise Stafford, Aine Doyle, Orla Crowe. Subs. - Jennifer Deering for Hall (43), Susie Griffith for O’Sullivan (46), Denise Deering for Stafford (51), Róisín Wheatley for Aine Doyle (54), Aisling Mythen for Aoibheann Doyle (56), also Aoife Doyle, Aisling O’Dwyer.
Johnstownbridge: Tanya Johnson; Erin McEvoy, Eimear Hurley, Ellen Morgan; Careen Farrell, Aoife Trant, Jenna Murphy; Aisling Holton, Clodagh Flanagan (0-1); Catherine Moloney (0-4), Siobhán Hurley (0-4, 3 frees, 1 ’45), Miriam Murphy (0-1); Róisín O’Connell (0-3, 1 free), Caoimhe Keoghan, Shauna Beatty. Subs. - Emma Farrell for Keoghan (31), Jane O’Donoghue for Beatty (43), Aoife Newman for M. Murphy (54).
Referee: Gavin Donegan (Dublin).