Waterford ladies
footballers opened their account with a hard fought sharing of the spoils with
their Munster rivals Clare when the two teams met in the opening round of the
LIDL Division 2 National Football League in Michael Cusack Park Carron in the
heart of the Burren on Sunday last. Forced into a number of changes due to
illness and injuries, Waterford got off to a dream start with a goal by Lauren
Mc Gregor in the 2nd minute followed by a point from full forward
Aileen Wall. Two more points in the 10th minute by Nicola Fennell
and by Róisín Tobin in the 12th minute left Waterford six points to
the good before Clare opened their account with a pointed free from Niamh O’Dea
in the 15th minute. Niamh O Dea repeated the dose with two more
frees to half the Waterford lead before Emma Murray put over a much needed
point in the 20th minute followed by a Lauren Mc Gregor free a
minute later. Ailish Considine got Clare’s first score from playa point in the
28th minute before Lauren Mc Gregor tapped over a free on the stroke
of half time to leave the score at the break Waterford 1-6 Clare 0-4.
Clare set about
their task with vigour at the start of the second half with three unanswered
points courtesy of Ailish Considine and Niamh O’Dea (2) to leave just two
points between the teams after 9 minutes of the second half. Waterford got a
great boost in the 10th minute with a well taken goal by Lauren Mc
Gregor but this was cancelled out immediately when a strong run from Grainne
Harvey resulted in a goal for Niamh O’Dea to leave two points between the
teams. In the 13th minute Becky Mahon cut the deficit for Clare to
the bare minimum. The next ten minutes or so were played in a welter of
excitement with both teams creating goal chances but the goalkeepers
Waterford’s Katie Hannon and Clare’s Ciara Harvey were both equal to the task
and made some wonderful saves. Niamh O’Dea levelled matters with six minutes to
go and though they tried their hardest neither team was able to produce the
match winning score and had to settle for a share of the spoils.
While this was a
game that Waterford could have lost the important thing is that they didn’t and
it gives them impetus going forward in the league. Division 2 is a very
competitive division and any 4 of the 8 teams could end up making the
semi-finals. Next up for Waterford is a home tie next Sunday against Laois who
opened their account with a narrow but important win over Kildare on a
score-line of; Laois 2-11 Kildare 2-9.The other games in the division resulted
in narrow home wins for Westmeath who beat Cavan by two points 1-9 to 2-4,
while Tyrone had four points to spare over Sligo 1-14 to 1-10.
Waterford lined out as follows: Katie Hannon, Mairéad Wall, Michelle McGrath, Kate McGrath, Deirbhile
Nic Aodha, Caoimhe McGrath, Megan Dunford, Karen McGrath, Hannah Power, Róisín
Tobin (0-1), Nicola Fennell (0-1), Emma Murray (0-1), Lauren Mc Gregor (2-2),
Aileen Wall (0-1) and Lauren Guiry. Subs
used—Rebecca Casey for Lauren Guiry, Eimear Fennell for Lauren Mc Gregor
and Geraldine Power for Róisín Tobin.
