Mayo teams score a hattrick on Super Saturday

The Mayo Schoolboys/Girls League had three of its female teams in Inter League action last Saturday, February 8, with the under-12s and under-13s completing their round-robin group format, and the under-16s in a National Cup semi-final. In yet another outstanding weekend for the girls’ game in Mayo, all three sides came out on top.

Kicking off first at midday in Lecarrow, Co Roscommon, were the under-12s who faced hosts Roscommon and District League in a top of the table clash where going into the game, the sides were only separated by virtue of goals scored – the home side with six and Mayo five.

Mayo manager John Hennelly rang the changes again to fully utilise all members of his large squad and his team opened very brightly, with Caoimhe Corcoran going close in the opening minute before Anna Holmes saw her terrific effort rebound off the crossbar a minute later.

On eight minutes a Henrika Barrett free-kick from wide on the left was turned wide by Holmes at the back post. Sadhbh McDonagh advanced from left back and hit a fine shot on 10 minutes which went just the wrong side of the post. Lucy Murphy saw her well delivered free-kick well dealt with by the home side. Holmes went on a lung-bursting run up the right flank finding the underlapping Sadhbh McGauley who just lost out to the home goalkeeper.

Corcoran had another long-range shot well saved as the Mayo central defensive pairing of captain Caitlin Cummins and Alice Burrows were very disciplined in restricting the home side to sights of Emma Fahey’s goal.

Orlaith Mongan was introduced at half-time, allowing McDonagh to move further up the wing.

The home side started the second period much better than Mayo with Emma Fahey making a smart save at the expense of a corner and the home side also hitting the bar, all in the opening three minutes of the half.

Mayo had their first sight of goal in the second-half when Sadhbh McDonagh fired over in the 41st minute. Roscommon went very close again on 46 minutes when they hit the frame of the goal but Mayo’s Ali Clarke and Laoise Heneghan were next to enter the fray and both immediately combined with Sadhbh McDonagh up the left and Sadbh made no mistake giving Mayo the lead with 50 minutes on the clock.

Deirdre Gilmore took over in goal and Heneghan played an intelligent through ball for Clarke to demonstrate her predatory skills with an excellent finish on 55 minutes to double Mayo’s lead. Roscommon pulled a goal back almost immediately but Mayo wasted no time in bagging a third when McDonagh never gave up on what looked like a lost cause up the left. She got there before the goalkeeper and rolled the ball across for Clarke to do like all good centre-forwards and finish emphatically.

Lucy Cunnigham, Annabelle Hayes and Anna Walsh were now also on the pitch, and despite the home side again reducing the deficit two minutes from time, Mayo saw out the almost five minutes of stoppage time to claim their third win from three. Two of those matches were on the road so the team is wishing now for a home tie in the Inter-League Cup knockout phase.

Next to kick off on Saturday (12.30pm) was the under-16 Inter-League Cup semi-final between Mayo and Waterford at Umbro Park, Castlebar. This was to prove an evenly matched encounter separated by a girl who really knows where the goal is.

Mayo had a couple of half chances from free-kicks early on but went very close on 16 minutes when a brilliant corner-kick delivery by Doireann Lynch saw Zainab Naeem’s header just drift wide. A well-executed chip from Aoibheann McNamara grazed the wrong side of the post with the ‘keeper stranded. Very unlucky.

A superb Mayo move from back to front involving ‘keeper Lauren Cusack and Katie Hughes almost played McNamara in, but the ball bobbled away from her at the worst time. Lynch saw her vicious corner saved by the Waterford goalkeeper’s feet. Despite Mayo being the much better side in the first-half, it took a sliding Hughes challenge to block a dangerous looking Waterford attack and make the interval score stay at 0-0.

Six minutes into the second-half came the Mayo breakthrough. Lynch and McNamara did the groundwork before the ball reached Riona Moynihan whose neat finish past the goalkeeper made it 1-0. Amy Doherty then picked McNamara out with a clever pass and she kept the ball moving to Grace Carroll and her pull back saw Moynihan being in the right place at the right time, and she doubled hers and Mayo’s tally.

Riona recently picked up a double accolade for scoring at the Mayo Women’s League by being top scorer in both the under-17 and under-19 leagues and it’s easy to see why.

Aoibheann McNamara went close twice in succession, first by shooting over and then by hitting the bar. Sophie O’Donnell teed up Carroll who was just off target while the post denied Moynihan her hat-trick.

Waterford fought hard to get back into the game but the Mayo defence were most impressive and were giving nothing away.

The 2-0 victory sees this talented group of players in yet another National Final where they will play the winner of South Belfast/Cork on the weekend of March 8/9. It’s a wonderful achievement too for the management team of Emma Gibbons and Kian Flanagan who were part of Sinead Mulhern’s U15 Inter-League Cup winning management team last year.

Last to kick-off was the Mike McGeough-managed under-13s who hosted Galway 2, also at Umbro Park. This was to prove to be a somewhat below par performance from the table topping Mayo girls who had to gain the victory by penalties after a 1-1 draw.

Despite taking an early lead, Mayo struggled to get into their stride and slack passing from the home side saw Galway deservedly equalise following a series of threatening corners. The second-half saw Mayo dominate the possession but fail to really trouble the opposition ‘keeper. The draw at full-time meant penalties and Mayo proved to be the better of the two sides and took the tie to finish top of their Inter League group and looking forward now to the knockout stages of the cup competition.

Speaking afterwards, John Flanagan, Head Coach of the Mayo Schoolgirls Emerging Talent, praised all three squads and their management teams. He particularly praised the efforts of under-16 manager Emma Gibbons who has contributed so much to so many sides over the years and has again been involved with an U16 squad that has reached an Inter-League Cup Final. A serious achievement, John noted.