AGB to face St Pat’s in final after An Tochar battle
AGB AN TÓCHAR 4-09 5-05
AFTER a successful season in 2016, winning the Junior ‘B’ championship and the Junior ‘A’ league, the AGB ladies have gone from strength to strength.
They played Intermediate league in 2017 and this experience proved invaluable as they took on a very strong Roundwood side in the semi-final of the Junior ‘A’ championship in Bray on Wednesday, August 23.
Amy Murphy was outstanding at midfield for An Tóchar and Angelyka Pyciak was given the unenviable task of marking this very experienced player.
Pyciak was immense throughout the 60 minutes never losing her focus and creating chances for her own side with some super attacking runs into the An Tóchar defence. She would go on to make some vital interceptions of the Roundwood kick outs in the second half that would ultimately influence the outcome of the game.
Emma Cox opened the scoring for AGB with a well taken point in the seventh minute.
An Tóchar then took the lead with a goal and a point from Amy Murphy in the ninth and 12th minutes. A 13th minute penalty saw Laura Rice in the Arklow goal facing Amy Murphy once again and Murphy made no mistake rattling the net and the game seemed to be getting away from the AGB side. Abbie Doyle scored her first point for AGB from a free in the 16th minute which she followed immediately with a point from play.
Arklow continued to pile on the pressure with Laoighse Geoghegan and Becky Bermingham carrying dangerous ball into the An Tóchar backline.
Grace Hurley was a thorn in her player’s side throughout the 60 minutes and with Clodagh Healy, Emer Curran and Abbie Doyle,combined to launch contin- uous attacks on the Roundwood back line.
Emma Cox scored the first of her hat-trick of goals in the 17th minute and followed with her second in the 19th.
A third goal for An Tóchar kept the pressure on the Arklow side but Cox responded with her side’s third goal for the half and she and Abbie Doyle added two further points to leave the half-time score for AGB at a very respectable 3-5. A goal in the 30th minute for An Tóchar meant the north Wicklow side finished the half trailing by a single point having scored 4-1.
It was more of the same in the second half with both teams determined to grab that elusive place in the final.
Emer Curran opened AGB’s account in the sixth minute of the second half and Emma Cox stretched the Arklow lead to three points in the seventh minute.
Molly Byrne entered the fray for AGB and quickly notched up her first point.
Roundwood responded with three points to reduce the Arklow lead to a single point once again.
Molly showed her experience and a quickly taken free found the top corner of the Roundwood net and the four point cushion was restored.
The Arklow back line worked tirelessly to keep the Roundwood attack at bay but Amy Murphy pointed in the 17th minute to eat into the AGB lead once more. Only a goal separated the teams as the game drew to a close.
Nicole Storey, Rebecca Hayden, Kayleigh Earls, Cao- ilfhinn Kavanagh Emily Mitchell and Zoe Takacs cleared the lines for Arklow as Roundwood desperately tried to score the equalising goal.
Caoimhe Ní Chonchubhair replaced the hard-working Hayden and a head injury to corner back Mitchell saw Emma McGeary enter the fray for AGB and both substitutes found themselves in a real humdinger of a battle to the final whistle.
A crucial point from Abbie Doyle gave Arklow an extra cushion before An Tochar broke from centre field to score An Tóchar’s fifth goal leaving AGB hanging on by a point.
At the end of a nerve wrecking four minutes of injury time AGB emerged exhausted but victorious on a score-line of 4-9 to 5-5 in what was a cracker of a game and one that would have made an excellent final as it was edge of the seat stuff for 60 minutes.
AGB now take on St. Pat’s in a repeat of the Junior ‘B’ final of last year, on September 3 at Aughrim County Grounds.