Louth sink London to book Derry date
Louth London 1-17 2-11
LOUTH kept their quest for All-Ireland glory on track with a hard-earned win over a spirited London in Ruislip on Sunday.
The victory ensured top spot in the group for the Reds, earning them a semi-final date with Derry, while London will take on favourites Limerick in the other last four clash, with both games pencilled in for the weekend after next.
London face the trickier assignment, but will feel that if they can learn the lessons from their first defeat of the campaign they can still reach a first All-Ireland final since 2008.
The Exiles got off to a good start and led 0-2 to no score0 inside the opening ninety seconds thanks to a brace of frees by Avril Kilkelly.
Lauren Boyle got Louth off the mark with a well-taken point in the tenth minute and Ailish Healey and Niamh Rice then exchanged points before the first goal of the game arrived after on seventeen minutes.
It went the way of the home side as some neat build-up play ended with Lisa Cafferky lobbing a high centre to the far post, where the impressive Kilkelly showed great awareness to fist the ball to the Louth net.
Louth then lost star defender Ciera Nolan to a yellow card in the 15th minute and with London leading by 1-4 to 0-3 it wasn’t looking good for the visitors.
A Kilkelly free extended the London lead to five points, but it was Louth who seized the initiative as Kate Flood’s high shot beat keeper Healy en-route to the top corner of the London net.
And in the ten minute spell when they were reduced to 14 players, Louth outscored the home side by 1-3 to 0-2 while playing against the strong breeze.
In the last action of the half, London captain Catriona McGahen shot over to give the home side a slender one point interval lead, 1-7 to 1-6
A quick Kilkelly point extended the Exiles lead and it got even better when Noelle Cocoman’s brilliant run and pass put Cafferky in the clear and the former Mayo star rounded Una Pearson with ease before finding the net to stretch the London lead to 2-8 to 1-6 with less than three minutes gone of the second half.
The Wee County showed admirable courage and dug deep to hit back with scores from Flood (2) and subs Jenny McGuiness, Bonnie Fleming and Rebecca Carr to reduce the defecit to the minimum again in the 47th minute.
Flood brought the sides level after a superb run by Aoife Russell.
London edged back in front two more times only to be pegged back on each occasion by McGuiness and Flood respectively.
London were unable to add to their tally in the last seven minutes of normal time, and the five extra minutes added on by referee Stephen McNulty with Louth scoring four times in that spell to make certain of the win.
Captain Flood, who was superb throughout and teenage star Lauren Boyle accounted for all of those scores, shared evenly between them, and they might have added more as Sinead Woods was very unlucky to see her fierce shot kept out the by the woodwork.
London led for most of this match but in the end it was Louth’s superior fitness and finishing ability which proved crucial.
Louth manager Darren Bishop expressed his satisfaction with the result:
‘This game was always going to be a tough test as both teams had two wins under their belt. I was pleased with how our girls prepared for the match and they were very focused from the word go. The game was extremely tight at times and I was impressed with how our team dealt with the conditions in the first half.
‘We registered a big score on the day and again we limited our wides tally which was good to see. There were some strong performances from our captain Kate Flood, Aoife Russell and Michelle McMahon.
‘We have won three out of three and are exactly where we wanted to be in an All-Ireland semi-final against formidable opposition in Derry, last year’s beaten semi-finalists. Over the next few weeks we will get the player’s recovered as they have had a very busy few weeks with club and county and we will be solely focusing on our preperations for one of the biggest days for this young team this year,’ concluded the Louth manager.
LOUTH: Una Pearson; Michelle McMahon, Eimear Murray, Shannen McLoughlin; Michelle McArdle, Ceire Nolan, Bronagh McGrane; Sineád Woods, Eimear Byrne; Aoife Russell, Kate Flood 1-6 (3f), Niamh Rice 0-1; Lauren Boyle 0-5, Bonnie Fleming 0-2, Aine Breen. Subs: Rebecca Carr 0-1 for McArdle, Jennifer McGuinness 0-2 for McGrane.
LONDON: Rachel Healy; Catherine Barrett, Ruanne Hunt, Nicole Mulholland; Noelle Cocoman, Lorraine McNulty, Cliona Twohig; Naoimhin Daly, Ailish Healy 0-2; Claire O’Sullivan, Avril Kilkelly 1-6 (4f), Rebecca Mills; Lisa Cafferky 1-2 (1f), Fiona. Morrissey, Catriona McGahan 0-1. Subs: Kathryn Canavan for Daly, Patricia Marmion for Morrissey, Bríd Murphy for Mills.
REFEREE: Stephen McNulty.