Champs Peamount off to winning start
A BRILLIANT long range effort from Eleanor Ryan-Doyle in the 87th minute saw champions Peamount carve out a narrow win against Wexford yesterday.
The visitors settled quickly and Áine O’Gorman had the first notable chance of the game after some nice footwork from Megan SmythLynch down the left.
Smyth-Lynch found her captain at the back post with a looping cross but O’Gorman cleared the bar with her header.
Despite having to defend for large parts of the opening ten minutes, Wexford might have taken the lead with a brilliant counter attack in the early stages. In a neat exchange of passes, Kylie Murphy put Aisling Frawley through on goal but keeper Niamh Reid-Burke was quick off her line and pulled off a fantastic save to deny the home striker.
Fantastic link-up play between Murphy and Ellen Molloy concluded with Lynn-Marie Grant getting a shot that went narrowly wide.
Wexford went close to taking the lead minutes before half-time when Ciara Rossiter’s well-struck effort was just off target.
Both sides found second-half chances hard to come by in the awkward gusty conditions.
O’Gorman and Lauren Dwyer had half-chances at either end but neither keeper was really tested.
A frantic final ten minutes saw Murphy miss an 84th minute penalty after Molloy was bundled over in the box. Murphy’s effort from the spot came crashing back off the bottom of the post.
Two minutes later, Peamount went ahead courtesy of Ryan-Doyle’s effort. The Peamount striker hit a speculative effort from distance, catching Ciamh Gray out as it looped over her head and into the top corner of the net.
Peamount held on to claim maximum points.
Wexford Youths: C Gray; C Rossiter, O Conlon, L Dwyer, N Sinnott (L Craven 89); A Clancy, E Kennedy (S Taylor 89), Ellen Molloy, L Marie-Grant; A Frawley, K Murphy
Booked: E Molloy (55)
Peamount: N Reid-Burke; L O’Callaghan, D Beirne, D Doherty, C Walsh; K Duggan, L McCartan, Á O’Gorman, M Smyth-Lynch (R Watkins 80); S Roche (S Doyle 65), E Ryan-Doyle. sCorer: Ryan-Doyle (87)
Booked: Stephanie Roche (40) referee: Claire Purcell lIn the other WNL games played yesterday, Bohemians beat Treaty United 6-2, Shelbourne defeated Anthlone Town 2-0 while Galway and Cork City played out a 3-3 draw.