St Mary’s are caught out by a Boyle surge
Connacht LGFA
Club Intermediate C’ship St Mary’s 3-4 Boyle 2-9
WITH extra-time looking like an inescapable fact of last Saturday’s Connacht LGFA Club Intermediate Championship quarter-final, unfortunately for St Mary’s it was Boyle that found an extra gear in time added on at the end of a closely-fought second-half at Kent Park.
As the rain poured down, St Mary’s, who had drawn level in the first minute of stoppage time, 3-4 to 2-7, after Karen Maloney’s third pointed free, were stung as their Roscommon opponents tacked on two late scores to win by two points, 2-9 to 3-4.
St Mary’s, who won the Sligo LGFA Intermediate Championship title on August 14, should be preparing for a provincial semi-final.
Three points up at half-time, 3-2 to 2-2, after a first-half in which they scored goals from Michaela Gaffney, Tara Breheny, whose powerful runs from midfield were a constant tonic, and Ruth Monaghan, St Mary’s will painfully reflect on missed chances. A free conversion attempt from Karen Maloney came off the upright – although from the rebound Ciara Gilroy pointed from play – and then Gilroy had a goal shot blocked after getting a pass from Michaela Gaffney. When Ruth Monaghan had a goal attempt in the 50th minute – from a move started by Karen Maloney – the home support froze momentarily when they realised that the corner-forward’s effort had gone narrowly wide. Another powerful run by Tara Breheny ended up with a weak shot and Boyle, who were rescued by six second-half points from Aisling Feely, were again let off the hook.
St Mary’s, who paid a hefty price for only scoring twice in the second-half, failed to continue their first-half momentum, when they regrouped positively after falling four points down, 1-1 to 0-0, in the opening three minutes.
Michaela Gaffney’s fifth minute goal – a fortuitous shot that caught out Boyle goalkeeper Shauna Moran after Tara Breheny’s pacy solo run set up the chance – brought St Mary’s back into it.
St Mary’s then had to deal with a second Boyle goal but better passing and patience rather than panic led to Tara Breheny finding the net after 17 minutes – Aoife Gilroy provided the final pass and Kayla Breheny was also involved in the build-up.
Although they had only two scores to show for the opening 17 minutes, these scores were goals, and Karen Maloney landed St Mary’s first point – a free – in the 19th minute.
In the last 10 minutes of the firsthalf St Mary’s were denied three times by the frame of the goal at the scoreboard end of the grounds.
Point attempts from Helen Monaghan and Michaela Gaffney came off the upright and then a potential turning point came when Tara Breheny pinged a shot off the crossbar after Helen Monaghan and Aoife Gilroy cleverly worked the ball before releasing the midfielder.
St Mary’s finished the first-half strongly – Karen Maloney pointed a free and Ruth Monaghan netted in the first minute of stoppage time after a Boyle kickout was turned over.
Boyle, too, were left to rue chances not taken – they had a second-half goal disallowed as well as two goal shots from Caoimhe Cregg that somehow missed the target.
Aside from Tara Breheny, also impressive for St Mary’s on their home pitch were Aoife Gilroy, Karen Maloney, Emma Corcoran and Sarah Keaney.
Boyle (Roscommon):