Tilda swipes in the leveller
Kilrush bring Glynn-Barntown to Premier final replay
GLYNN-BARNTOWN KILRUSH 1-6 1-6
TILDA MURPHY swiped home an equalising goal five minutes into added-time as Kilrush earned a replay against Glynn-Barntown in the Under-14 camogie Premier championship final in Farmleigh on Saturday.
The Ballyroebuck-based club looked to be heading for a heartbreaking defeat when the superb Robyn O’Connor raced away on the left wing and scooped the game’s first goal over the head of Sinéad Breen in the 62nd minute to make it 1-6 to 0-6.
However, Kilrush refused to let their heads drop. They kept battling and won a long-range free with time ticking away.
Sorcha O’Rourke took it and dropped it into a fantastic area close to goal. It pinballed around but Murphy reacted to the floating ball and batted to the net to earn the draw.
The tie was undoubtedly the right result after a back-andforth contest between two evenly-matched sides.
The battle between O’Connor and Sadhbh Buttle pretty much reflected the game as a whole, as the two best players on the field cancelled each other out but they both had their moments in a monumental battle.
Glynn-Barntown came into the game as the form team, having won all their games well this season, but that didn’t mean anything to the Gorey District club. It did take Kilrush a little while to settle as the favourites took an early advantage.
O’Connor opened the scoring from an acute angle from the right in the second minute, and she added to that advantage with a ’45 seven minutes later.
After Jane Murphy was denied a Glynn-Barntown goal by solid ’keeper Sinéad Breen, Shauna MacSweeney hit back with her first point.
A third O’Connor point made it 0-3 to 0-1 at the end of the opening quarter, only for MacSweeney to close out the period with a pair of placed balls as the sides went in deadlocked. The second-half proved to be just as tight.
Buttle and MacSweeney put Kilrush 0-5 to 0-3 up by the 41st minute, but Glynn-Barntown nabbed three on the bounce, all from play, with O’Connor, Anna Sinnott and Hannah Kehoe all on target.
After Keila Smyth was fouled in the 60th minute, a composed MacSweeney levelled the game.
There was to be no quiet finish as the goals from O’Connor and Murphy cancelled each other out and sent the final to a replay.
Glynn-Barntown: Jane Duggan; Sridevi Sinnott, Scarlett Ramsey, Emma Walsh; Josie Mullen, Sophie O’Leary (joint capt.), Emma O’Leary; Jane Murphy, Robyn O’Connor (joint capt., 1-4, 0-1 free, 0-1 ’45); Hannah Kehoe (0-1), Ella Carley, Olivia Garnett; Layla Stafford, Anna Sinnott (0-1), Ellie Stafford. Subs. - Sidhi Sinnott for Garnett (43), Emma Cullen for Carley (53), also Grace Donoghue, Niamh Walsh, Alice Hilliard.
Kilrush: Sinéad Breen; Leanne Walsh, Anna Tomkins, Kayla McGannon; Keila Smyth, Sorcha O’Rourke, Áine Sharry; Sadhbh Buttle (joint capt., 0-1), Marie Byrne; Amber Walsh, Rebecca Kavanagh, Tilda Murphy (1-0); Shauna MacSweeney (0-5, 4 frees, 1 ’45), Nicola Corrigan (joint capt.), Orla O’Rourke. Subs. - Amy Power for Corrigan (55), also Kira Scully, Laura Kehoe, Kim Dixon, Katie Moorhead, Isobel Whitts, Ellie May Mahon, Marita McCrea, Eabha Guinan.
Referee: Aidan Breen (Marshalstown-Castledockrell).