Honours shared in opening League Tie

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 2^nd minute followed by a point from full forward Aileen Wall. Two more points in the 10^th minute by Nicola Fennell and by Róisín Tobin in the 12^th minute left Waterford six points to the good before Clare opened their account with a pointed free from Niamh O’Dea in the 15^th 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 20^th minute followed by a Lauren Mc Gregor free a minute later. Ailish Considine got Clare’s first score from playa point in the 28^th 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 10^th 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 13^th 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.